S.F. Vanni Publishers and Booksellers

S.F. Vanni Publishers and Booksellers was acquired in 1931 by Andrea Ragusa. During the timespan examined by Transatlantic Transfers it was located at 30 West, 12th street, in the heart of Manhattan, close to Fifth Avenue and Washington Square.

In collaboration with academics and scholars Ragusa expanded the catalogue of school texts, including manuals for the learning of Italian, French, Spanish, German, Russian and Esperanto. Furthermore, he published essays on literature, geopolitics and philosophy, thanks to the involvement of Mario Pei, Emiliano Peruzzi, Giuseppe Prezzolini, Eugene Scalia and others. Italian culture remained at the heart of the S.F. Vanni editions, with a production of two to four titles per year. Especially relevant for transatlantic transfers are the series 'Casa Italiana Collection of Italian Classics', with facing texts (Dante, Guicciardini, Carducci), and 'Old and New Sheaves', with rare texts by D'Annunzio, Livingston and Pareto.

When Andrea Ragusa died in 1974, his daughters Olga and Isa took over the bookshop, and run it until 2004. Since 2015 the venue hosts Centro Primo Levi.

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