Alberto Mondadori

Early years and family

Mondadori was the first child of Arnoldo Mondadori, founder of the publishing house that bears his name, and Andreina Monicelli. He was the elder brother of Giorgio (1917–2009), Laura (1924–1991), and Cristina (1934–2015). He attended primary school in Verona up to the fourth grade, then moved with his family to Milan, where he completed primary school and enrolled first at the Liceo classico Giuseppe Parini and then at the Liceo Berchet. There he met the philosopher Remo Cantoni, who became a close friend. He attended courses at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Pavia, but did not graduate.

In 1932, aged 18, Alberto Mondadori with a group of friends founded ‘Camminare’ magazine. The magazine addressed the social issues of the 1930s, anti-bourgeois debates, and the illusion of a new, revolutionary, and anti-capitalist form of fascism.