Agresti, Olivia Rossetti

Variant names

Dates:

Birth 1875-09-30

Death 1960-11-06

Biographical notes:

Olivia Rossetti Agresti, the eldest daughter of William Michael Rossetti, was born in London on September 30, 1875. In 1892 she and her younger sister Helen began printing and distributing their own Anarchist journal, The Torch, an adventure described in their novel A Girl Among the Anarchists, published under the pseudonym Isabel Meredith in 1903.

Olivia married author and journalist Antonio Agresti in 1897, and the couple settled in Florence and later in Rome. In 1904 she was hired as a secretary and interpreter by David Lubin, founder of the Internatiional Institute of Agriculture, and worked closely with him until his death during the 1918 influenza epidemic. She joined the staff of the Italian delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva in the following year. Throughout her life, she continued to work as an interpreter at international conferences held in Italy and at the annual assemblies of the League of Nations.

In 1921 she joined the staff of the Italian Association of Joint Stock Companies as the editor of their monthly newsletter, a position she held until 1942. After Antonio's death in 1926, Agresti continued her work as editor and interpreter, and also lectured several times in the United States on such topics as "The Historical Development of the Italian Garden," "The Growth of Italian Industries," and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. She also converted to Roman Catholicism and adopted two Italian girls.

Agresti's published works include Giovanni Costa: His Life, Work and Times (1904); David Lubin: A Study in Practical Idealism (1922); and The Organization of the Arts and Professions in the Fascist Guild State (1938), the last with Mario Missiroli. While she disapproved of Pound's antisemitism and his attacks on religion, she shared his approval of Fascist Italy and his belief that he had not committed treason, and in 1954 translated "Prometheus Bound," the text of a Radio Vatican broadcast on Pound's case, as a contribution to efforts to free him from St. Elizabeth's. In her later years, Agresti began work on a memoir and frequently visited Schloss Brunnenberg, the home of Pound's daughter Mary de Rachewiltz. Olivia Rossetti Agresti died in Rome in 1960.

From the guide to the Olivia Rossetti Agresti Papers, 1947-1963, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)