Elena Croce: militant culture and environmental protection

Abstract

Elena Croce (Naples 1915 - Rome 1994), was a translator, writer, editor and coordinator of cultural journals. The contribution she made to the founding of the environmental movement in Italy between the 1950s and 1980s is now being rediscovered. In this short article we will attempt to focus our attention on the levels on which Croce brought forward her “fight for the environment”: her concrete participation in environmental battles, the dissemination of these battles and their problems through the written word and the founding of environmental committees and associations like Italia Nostra. In the lack of previous works, we indicate that most of the materials used come from the Elena Croce archives, housed in the «Fondazione Biblioteca Benedetto Croce». The examination of the archives led to a wide and fruitful documentation on environmental issues.