Good Enzo Books?

Don’t know if it has been mentioned, but I consider Gino Rancati’s book “Ferrari, the man” - as translated in its English version - as really enjoyable.

 

Have to agree with everyone else - dal Monte for sure. However “Enzo e Laura Ferrari” by Cesare Carani is an interesting look at Enzo’s private life.
Nathan

 

In the end I have to say I do agree... if you forget the medical side there are some good stories in this one.

 

I think the Brock Yates book on Ferrari is also pretty good, and a tad less researched that Del Monte - but it was done when Enzo was alive, so it has more detail about the 30's - to 70's.... when Enzo was really active. Forgiheri's book as well as Franco Gozzi's picture books are very good as well. Its hard to have a book written in Italian be direct translated into English and be good.... both these are good but the picture are excellent. Gino Rancanti's book is hard to read and is almost more about him vs. Enzo. Doing a Biography from Piero's point of view would be a great undertaking - but doubtful that he's go along with it... the number of people who knew Enzo is diminishing rapidly - so we will soon come to a time when its all just the legend. the Man is far more interesting.

 

I think that dal Monte's book is the closest to being definitive, but I also have the Forghieri, Gozzi and Rancati books and find them all worthwhile, as well as Enzo's own writings. I'm looking forward to Doug Nye's new effort.

 

Gerald Roush, the author and publisher of the Ferrari Market Letter who was one of the very top experts before his premature passing had a major problem with the Yates book and numerous errors. It drove him nuts... I would therefore be cautious about it.

I own a copy but could never find the time or motivation to read it in full... because... I felt it was too generic, Joe public oriented and left me wanting for more.
I am interested in reading the Dal Monte book but have spent enough time on the overcrowded Ferrari universe and am much more interested in Maserati history.

 

A question was asked on Ferrari-Chat fairly recently about whether it is good to have "warts and all" in a biography. My first thought had been that of course you do: why else would you read about someone if you did not want to know everything? My second thought was the Brock Yates book. There are a few things in there that I feel I did not need to know and am not even sure have been proven. That there was no mention of them in the Luca dal Monte book leads me to suspect they are not true.

 

Well, Brock Yates wasn't known in period as "The Assassin" for nothing... Find out more here:

https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/brock-yates/

 

In my view, you have to put together your own piece of Enzo biography by reading several books about different stations of his live. The best start in my view are "La Nascita" by @piloti and "Ferrari Tipo 166" by Gianni Rogliatti (the latter tellls the story of the early years brilliantly). Then, you could turn to Franco Gozzi's "Memoirs of Enzo Ferrari's Lieutenant". But beware: Don't read the passage about how Gozzi disposes of all the very many remaining 1950 yearbooks ... It's heartbreaking.
As a follow-up, I am not sure about the Yates book. I started reading it when it had been published, but I stopped after a while, because I felt many of his comments were strange. There was in my view more opinion and speculation than facts.
As far as Enzo Ferrari's later years are concerned, I have to admit, I have no idea whether there is a good book. The Catalogue Raisonnee and the books published at several of the company's anniversaries give a lot of information, but it is really difficult to find one comprehensive work.

 

Thank you for your kind comment about La Nascita.

IMHO the Yates book isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Better to buy the Dal Monte book. I could also add "The Roaring Races" which is a detailed book about Enzo's early years as a racing driver.

Catalog Raisonne and the Anniversary books won't tell you much about Enzo other than the usual platitudes.
N

 

I have all the Major English Version Enzo Ferrari biographies, and I think by and large Yates book is accurate. I've read DalMonte 's book as well which is also very good, but is somewhat tedious. Non the less his details on the early history of Enzo is good. For me Yates book and Dalmonte are the best. I think Yates book was done while Enzo was fresh in peoples minds vs. having written a book 30 years later... that is always the hard thing to do.

 

One correction on my side: When I wrote above "the latter tells the story of the early years brilliantly", of course I meant it in regard to the book's title which suggests just a story about the 166 model range! It is not meant the way that "La Nascita" by @piloti would not tell it brilliantly. As we all know, it does so even more than brilliantly and it is in my view must-be literature as far as Enzo Ferrari is concerned.

 

I will eventually get Dal Monte's book, a must read, just not a priority now.

 

as noted above the Dal Monte book is a bit tedious but perhaps only in the sense that there is a mind numbing amount of detail provided. Local politics as always play an interesting role to...

 

there is little about Enzo on a personal basis after 1966. His life was complex and he and Laura were together till her death in 78, and then almost nothing, in particular, can be settled - other than he and Lina Lardi was made more public outside of Italy, Piero added Ferrari to the name. Even the Fiat - Ferrari business relationship after the buy out is difficult to source and understand. from what I know - Fiat "bought" the first right of refusal of all the shares and a long term lease on the Road Car company -but Enzo still "owned" the property and buildings etc... so he did not have much day to day say or control or did he? some say None - and he disliked it all, and some say yes, he and Ghidella ( sp?) were close as was with Dela Casa and all the money... he and Angelli etc... so its complex and there are just stories. I don't know if this is because of the Italian language and translations or that Enzo was that good at keeping it all secret. To my Knowledge, Piero has not discussed the business side Nor his move from the Reparto Corse to Road cars in late 87 early 88. what we do know is the Barnard / Posthelwhite and Alboreto Piero conspiracy was there against Enzo and Piccinini, Barnard and Marlboro...

The Yates book is just as muddy - and I agree there is opinion vs. fact to fill in missing details. So my take is either it was so boring its not a story or Enzo kept it tight and quiet.... ?

 

I agree, the early years there are so many people to track, who is who is hard. I have the book in Italian as well, and it's even harder to read, as you have to know the prevailing Italian cultural landscape at the time, as the writer makes references to very specific regional Italian events... the English book either takes that our or explains ( kind of vaguely ) what he means. I also think there is more that can be done on early Scuderia - how Count Trossi and his crew interacted with Ferrari... and how Enzo eventually outlasted them or did he fool them? . Many don't know Trossi was the 1st President of Scuderia Ferrari....

 

well, if you have a copy of Yates book on Ferrari - send it to me - they are rare now and go for quite a bit of $$$$

 

Good of him to put everything in there; the motivation to do that, as I experienced when doing my most important book is twofold: to not leave anything out and to establish the definitive research on the topic. It is deeply satisfying....and part of the masochistic pleasure of being an author

 

I will say the way Dal Monte tells the story a hundred pages go by in no time. You are left wondering 'how does he know all these details' though! His book is an amazing effort and as someone else commented the translation from Italian to English was his and not the work of some other third party. Being a Ferrari employee opened more than a few doors to...

 

Yes translation must absolutely be done right, I have done them since the 80's, it is an art form. Done badly -such as the Zagari Orsini (not Orsi) Maserati book from many decades ago: a 900 page sleeping pill in English, terrible- you fall asleep reading it or get annoyed but done right it is a revelation.

My method is to go beyond language to the root of the person's thinking -language is after all an artificial construct- and then deliver what the person meant to say in the new language. Needless to say you have to be very careful, ethical and respectful.

Translating Arnaud Meunier's Pozzi book to English involved some cultural challenges such as some sentences which are normal in French but would have sounded klutzy in English. Last year I started translating a book from Italian to English before the project got cancelled outright...that involved a LOT of cultural differences to address; a straight translation would have been a disaster.

 

Hmmm. Prices start at $1.02 from a very quick Internet search so I don't think anyone is going to make their fortune from selling their copy just yet.

 

obviously I have not done an internet search. the last one I saw for sale was at Shopping F-1 for 125e... $130 ish.... unsigned.

I just looked and for the hardback copy - the cheapest I found is $48 on ebay.. with Amazon showing $99 - $145

where did you get one for a dollar?

 

PM'd you.

 

It was on abebooks (I'm not including P&P though) and didn't look specifically for hardback.