Dora Melegari

Melegari was born in Lausanne, her father was the diplomat Luigi Amedeo Melegari and her mother was Marie Caroline Mandrot.[1]

In 1881 Octave Mirbeau ghost wrote the first of three novels for Melagari.[2] Melagari then wrote her own novels, Her ghost writer eventually published books under his own name.

In 1887 she started writing for the Internationale Revue using the nom de plume of Thomas Emery.[2] She wrote literary reviews and in time took a management role with the magazine.[1] In 1900 she published her most well known work in Paris. This was later translated into Italian as Il sonno delle anime and published in Milan in 1903.[1] Melagari discussed the nature of friendship between women. She criticised women and particularly those of the south for ignoring its benefits. She proposed that this might be because they consider anything that is not love to have little value.[3] Melagari was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1914 and 1923.[4]

She died in Rome in 1924 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.[5]

• Dans la vieille rue, Ollendorff, Paris, 1880 (ghost written)
• Expiation, Levy, Paris, 1881
• Les incertitudes de Livie, Ollendorff, Paris, 1881
• Journal intime de Benjamin Costant et lettres a sa famille et ses amis, Ollendorff, Paris, 1886
• Marthe de Thiennes, Levy, Paris, 1886
• La duchesse Ghislamé, Paris, 1895
• Kirie Eleison, Paris, 1896
• Il sonno delle anime, Milan, 1903
• La Giovane Italia e la Giovane Europa. Carteggio inedito tra Giuseppe Mazzini e Luigi Amedeo Melegari, 1906
• Chercheurs de sources, Fischbacher, Paris, 1908
• Caterina Spadaro, Milan, 1908
• In cerca di sorgenti, Milan, 1910
• La città del giglio, Milan, 1911
• La piccola damigella Cristine, Milan, 1913
• Artefici di pene e artefici di gioie, Trier, Milan, 1913
• Ames et visages des femmes, Paris, 1913
• Les Victorieses, Paris, 1913
• Amici e nemici, Milan, 1914
• Il destarsi delle anime, Milan, 1915
• La resurrezione di Lazzaro, Rome, 1915