Bompiani

Description

Bompiani was founded in Milan in 1929. His founder, Valentino Bompiani, an Italian writer and playwright, had previously worked for other publishers such as Mondadori and Unitas. Bompiani published works by Ford and Roosvelt but also Hitler’s Mein Kampf, following the suggestion of Angelo Treves, a Jewish professor, who believed that it was important for readers to know who Hitler was. Indeed, Bompiani was active publishing books which opposed Nazi-fascism, such as Hitler by Theodor Heuss, who became president of West Germany after WWII.
At the same time, however, Bompiani had strong ties with the Fascist regime, of which it took advantage. Indeed, it was one of few publishers to be appointed by the Regime to publish school textbooks in line with its propaganda.
Bompiani specialised in titles dealing with literature and culture, and since the 1930s it has been publishing works by famous Italian authors such as Alberto Moravia, Ennio Flaiano, Umberto Eco, just to name a few, and by international authors such as T.S. Eliot, Joseph Conrad, and Marguerite Yourcenar.
Since 2016 Bompiani has been part of the Italian publishing group Giunti.