Never a conformist in her writing or her personal life, Anglo-Italian author Annie Vivanti was born in London on 7 April 1866 (although she first claimed to have been born in 1870 and later in 1868). She was the youngest daughter of Anselmo Vivanti and Anna Lindau. Her father, a silk merchant, lived as an exile in London, where he had fled after the political uprisings in Italy in 1851 that eventually led to Italian Unification ten years later. Her mother was a writer and a member of the literary Lindau family in Germany. As Annie’s first teacher, she ensured that her daughter was fluent in several languages: English, Italian, German, and French. Later the family moved to New York where Anselmo took on, among other positions, a post as head of the Italian Chamber of Commerce there. As a…
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Citation: Urbancic, Anne. "Annie Vivanti". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 January 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14154, accessed 26 November 2024.]