Background
Inge Schönthal was born to Jewish immigrants from Spain.
journalist Photographer publisher
Inge Schönthal was born to Jewish immigrants from Spain.
She began her career as photographer in Hamburg. In 1952 during a long stay in New York City she was able to photograph Greta Garbo, Elia Kazan, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Winston Churchill. Among her most celebrated photos are those of writers Ernest Hemingway, Edoardo Sanguineti, Allen Ginsberg, Günter Grass, Nadine Gordimer and artists Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.
(He had two previous marriages, one later one) She took charge of international relations for the publishing house.
She eventually became the de facto head of the publishing house as Feltrinelli a few years later embraced the “struggle for the revolution against imperialism”. In 1969 she was named vice-president in a company restructure decided by Feltrinelli (who remained President in name only) in anticipation of his transition to clandestine activities.
Other significant details – such as the scope of her influence on the existential choices by Feltrinelli and her contacts with Soviet entities – are described and documented in the “Interview with Inge Schoental” published on November 11, 2011 by the Russian-American weekly Kontinent United States of America.