Second largest Italian publisher on the trade market, with a share of 5.6% in 2023, Einaudi stands out for its production of books that express an appetite for discovery, cultural commitment and literary quality.

The success of the Einaudi brand is a result of excellence in its editorial approach and its commercial soundness. Enhancement of its catalogue, a focused author policy and the constant search for new proposals are the distinctive traits of the publishing house, continuing and innovating on years of work, with a view to what can be expected for the future and on what must not be forgotten from the past.

The Einaudi publishing house was established in Turin in 1933 by a group of friends, all students of the D’Azeglio secondary school (classical studies). Together with Giulio Einaudi, the initial group is formed by Leone Ginzburg, Massimo Mila, Norberto Bobbio, and Cesare Pavese, later accompanied by others such as Natalia Ginzburg (wife of Leone) and Giaime Pintor.

After Ginzburg’s death, tortured and killed by Nazis in Rome in 1944, Einaudi continued the business: the Rome office is headed by Pavese, the Milanese one by Elio Vittorini, and the Turin one first by Mila, then Pavese. The publication of works by Gramsci was fundamental in the immediate post-war period, with Pavese taking the helm of Einaudi. Under his direction, the publishing house diversifies its non-fiction range to include anthropology and psychoanalysis, and starts to become a benchmark for Italian and foreign fiction and for classics, with the series Coralli, Supercoralli and Millenni.
After his death (1950), the publishing house, coordinated by Luciano Foà, agrees, particularly through the series I gettoni by Vittorini, to renew its Italian narrative by promoting new authors such as Beppe Fenoglio, Franco Lucentini, Ottiero Ottieri, Lalla Romano, Mario Rigoni Stern, Anna Maria Ortese, Leonardo Sciascia and many others. But it is also important to maintain continuity with regard to the political discussion carried out in a series such as Libri bianchi, following the crisis in 1956, with the events in Hungary and the revelation of Stalin’s crimes.

Vittorini and Calvino guide the literary research along a path of progressive experimentation, very attentive to the most innovative events in Europe and America, while Giulio Bollati coordinates the offer of books and series of classics, proposing an in-depth and uneasy interpretation of modernity. The Pbe (Piccola biblioteca Einaudi) on the one hand (1960), and the Nue (Nuova universale Einaudi) on the other (1962), create a sort of evolving encyclopaedia, with a two-fold outlook pointing at the future of various disciplines of thought and at the past of literary and philosophical tradition, where tradition is necessary in order to best comprehend the hurdles of contemporary life.

The publishing house subsequently takes a simultaneous step into two different areas, namely literary discovery and political-cultural reflection. The year 1965 is an emblematic one, with the simultaneous creation of two series such as Nuovo Politecnico, directed by Bollati – small books that cover political and social issues without limiting themselves to the description but digging deeper into the underlying theoretical issues – and La ricerca letteraria, by Guido Davico Bonino, which examines the most significant experimental texts in Italy and abroad. A simultaneous step that continues with the birth of Serie politica (1968) and Einaudi Letteratura (1969).

Einaudi makes the utmost effort to expand its public in the Seventies and obtains enormous results in terms of circulation. The most impressive endeavour in the non-fiction segment is Storia d’Italia, in six large volumes (1972-1976), directed by Ruggiero Romano and Corrado Vivanti, which despite not having a popular character sells over 100,000 copies. In terms of fiction, mention goes to an absolute bestseller like La storia by Elsa Morante, selling approximately one million copies. Then we have Gli struzzi, which is a more affordable series that covers the best of what Einaudi has already published in other series, and Calvino’s Centopagine, which outline the classics of modern times. The 15-volume Enciclopedia (1977-1982) is also created, directed by Ruggiero Romano, with the contribution of some of the most important scholars from around the world: this work, which has a complex and highly innovative structure, does not have the same success as Storia d’Italia, although it exceeds 35 thousand copies.

The Eighties are difficult years for the publishing house, as it experiences a serious financial crisis. However, despite everything, it still manages to publish new authors, roll out new series like Microstorie, directed by Carlo Ginzburg and Giovanni Levi, and Scrittori tradotti da scrittori, conceived and personally supervised by Giulio Einaudi, and build a multi-volume work like Letteratura italiana, directed by Alberto Asor Rosa, which immediately becomes the benchmark for study and consultation.

The Nineties see a partial generational shift and a renewed commitment on all “historic” fronts of the publishing house: literature and, in particular, foreign fiction, with the launch or revival of authors such as Abraham Yehoshua, Ian McEwan, Don DeLillo, José Saramago, Günter Grass, Paul Auster, John Maxwell Coetzee and many others; non-fiction and the major works, with the creation of Biblioteca Einaudi and renewal of the Pbe; the classics, with the launch of Biblioteca della Pléiade.

Another front then opens up: paperbacks, which Einaudi has never really had and which rapidly becomes a major part of the publishing house, growing over the years up to taking on the brand ET (Einaudi Tascabili) in 2005, grouped by genre and format.

In 1996, we see the creation of Stile libero, a trendy series aimed mainly at a younger audience but not only, promptly presenting the most interesting news in the literary world and in underground and pop culture. During the 2000s, with a continued focus on research and on new literary talent, Stile libero becomes an actual publishing system, broken down into series that range from fiction to DVDs, from varied to noir, from graphic novels to non-fiction. Some of the most successful examples of the Stile libero formula include Niccolò Ammaniti, Michel Faber, Wu Ming, Edward Bunker, and Giancarlo De Cataldo.