Possibly as a result of the electroshock therapy she received, Melini’s memory began to fade and her three youngest children were sent off to be raised by others.
In 1978 Melini returned to Carniti when the Italian government ordered the asylum closed. After he died in 1983, she reunited with her old friends, such as Corti and the poet Michele Her Pieri, who was 30 years her senior, and began a tumultuous relationship with her.
In 1984 Melini and Pieri married and moved to Taranto, a coastal city in southern Italy. That year, with the support of Corti and the publisher Scheiwiller Libri, Melini produced her poetry collection, The Holy Land. This collection of poems, a graphic and spiritual reflection of her life in an insane asylum, is widely regarded as her masterpiece.
As her second husband’s health deteriorated in the late 1980s, Melini again struggled with her mental state. In 1988, she was admitted to the psychiatric department of Tarrant Hospital. Suffering from isolation, she turned to Binotti, who helped her move to Milan shortly before Pieri’s death.
So, struggling financially and emotionally, she turned to a group of friends. Shaiwiller Libri paid her rent. Bignotti also supported her financially. Corti and the poet Giovanni Raboni compiled her writings into a new book of poetry, which led to her rediscovery.
In an email Melini wrote, Susan Stewart, professor of English literature at Princeton University and author of The Love Lesson, a translation of Melini’s poems into English, wrote: She wasn’t interested,” he said. Meet your readers’ expectations. ”
