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June 22, 2020 Farewell to the American writer Charles Webb, author of the planetary bestseller "The Graduate" (1963): the protagonists - the young and disillusioned Benjamin 'Ben' Braddock and the seductive and mature Mrs Robinson, accomplices of a restless and secret relationship - were authentic icons of American culture after the 1967 cult movie of the same name by Oscar Nichols (Oscar for this feature), starring Dustin Hoffmann and Anne Bancroft.Webb was 81 years old and had long lived permanently in Eastbourne, Sussex in south-east England. In the village he lived for a period even under a false name.
The announcement of the disappearance, which took place on June 16, is reported today in the English newspapers "The Time" and "The Telegraph". He was born on June 9, 1939 in San Francisco, California.
Author of eight novels, Webb coexisted with his ex-wife, the painter Eve (nicknamed with the masculine 'Fred', because of the almost kidnapped hair worn to zero for a long time). The refusal of the limelight was a personal philosophy of Webb, who has always remained in the shadows and has lived for many years traveling the world and leading a bohemian life.
The extraordinary proceeds of the extraordinary success in bookstores and in the cinema of "The Graduate" (there is talk of over $ 2 million in the late 1960s) were squandered by Webb in
hatred of money. "I got what I earned, not because of some Franciscan ideal, but because we couldn't stand having luggage," he said in 2001 in one of his rare interviews. For 40 years he lived in barracks, in nudist camps, in caravans, in shelters for the poor, in hotel rooms; finally he sat down in a two-room apartment.
In addition to the more famous work "Il laureato" (published by Mondadori in 1968; reprinted in 2017 by the publisher Mattioli 1885), the novels "Affettuosamente, Roger" (1969; Mondadori, 1970) have been translated into Italian; "The marriage of a young stockbroker" (1970; Mondadori, 1972); "The grand slam" (Mattioli 1855, 2015). "Orphans and Other Children" (1975) are not translated; "The Abolitionist of Clark Gable Place" (1976); "Elsinor" (1977).
After more than 30 years of silence ("a long vacation" paid with the generous earnings of "Il graduato", he said) in 2002 Webb published "New Cardiff" (in Italian "Volare via, published by Sonzogno again in 2002), a very autobiographical story about a long bus trip on American roads, from which Mark Herman's film "Hope Springs" (2003) was taken with Colin Firth. Webb ended his career with "Home School" (2007), translated into Italian with the title "Welcome back, Mrs. Robinson" (Mattioli 1855, 2018), in which he tells us what happened to the protagonists of "Il Laureato". The book, which had been thinking once in a while to make money and pay debts , turned out to be almost a fiasco.