SERAO, Matilde (Patrasso, 1856 - Napoli, 1927)1 lettera e un biglietto, autografi, indirizzati a Olga Lodi, s.d.

Matilde Serao (Patras, 1856 – Naples, 1927) graduated from the Scuola Normale Femminile in Naples. In 1878, she published her first novel, Opale, and began collaborating with several newspapers. In 1882, she moved to Rome, where she became the first woman in Italy to become editor of Capitan Fracassa. His articles on Captain Fracasse are signed under the pseudonym Chiquita, one of several pseudonyms (Gibus, Riccardo Joanna, Giuliano Sorel) which he would continue to use frequently in other newspapers as well.
During those years, she began her prolific literary production, including novels, short stories, and essays: Cuore infermo (Sick Heart), 1881; Fantasia (Fantasy), 1883; La virtù di Checchina (The Virtue of Checchina), 1884; Il ventre di Napoli (The Belly of Naples), 1884; La conquista di Roma (The Conquest of Rome), 1885; and numerous others, up to Mors tua... (Your Death...), a novel in three instalments published in 1926. 
In 1885, she married Edoardo Scarfoglio, with whom she founded the Corriere di Roma. In 1902, Matilde Serao founded, again with Scarfoglio, the Il Mattino di Napoli. She resigned from the Mattino in 1903, after separating from Scarfoglio. After a brief stint with the magazine La Settimana, she became the first woman in Italy to found a new daily newspaper, Il Giorno. In 1926, Serao was nominated for theNobel Prize for Literature, but her nomination was blocked by Mussolini because of her anti-fascist views.

 Olga Ossani (Rome, 1857 - Rome 1933) was an important journalist and writer. She was an active promoter of the Italian feminist movement, strongly supporting, through her journalistic writings, women's right to vote, to study, to equal working conditions and to divorce. She began her journalistic career in Naples in 1883 with her first contributions to the fortnightly magazine Cronaca bizantina. The following year, the journalist Edoardo Scarfoglio introduced her to Capitan Fracassa. In 1884, she moved to Rome, where she met Gabriele D'Annunzio, with whom she had a romantic relationship, and journalist Luigi Lodi, who became her husband in 1885.

In the following years, she intensified her journalistic activity, collaborating with numerous newspapers, often signing with the pseudonym Febea. During those same years, she and her husband purchased the villa in Santa Marinella, where they hosted the intellectuals of the moment during the summer months, including Trilussa, Pietro Mascagni, Luigi Pirandello, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Maria Montessori, Matilde Serao, Eleonora Duse and Grazia Deledda. In the years that followed, Olga Ossani combined her intense journalistic activity with an active commitment to women's rights. Together with Maria Montessori, she was the Italian delegate to the International Women's Congress held in London in 1899.