Pietro Ferrua

Pietro Ferrua was aptly referred to as a Renaissance man. His Ph.D. was in Romance Languages with M.A. degrees in the areas of philosophy and translation. Pietro was a master of languages, fluent in Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish and English.

As faculty of Lewis and Clark College, he gave lectures and taught courses for students from 1970 until his retirement in 1987 in the departments of Communications, Art, English, Philosophy, and Political Science.

Pietro Ferrua had a remarkable career as a conference interpreter for international organizations in all continents, including diplomatic interpretation for a score of heads of states and governments.

Pietro Ferrua's publications include books and essays in the fields of literary criticism, art history, political history, film studies, and comparative literature. In his lifetime he wrote in a variety of literary forms, notably drama, short stories, and film scripts. As a multimedia artist he was represented in exhibitions in Italy, Finland, France, and Spain.

Publishers: Anarchism (Portland, Oregon) Bibliographica (Portland, Oregon) House of Albi (Portland, Oregon) Lewis and Clark College Film and Literature account (Portland,OR circa 1976?) Oasi (Bordighera, Italy)

History: The name Avant-Garde Publishers first appeared in 1978 on the book entitled "Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Letterism", which took place at Lewis and Clark College in 1976. Avant-Garde Publishers was founded by the Parisian artist and author Maurice Lemaître. It consisted entirely of an account at Lewis and Clark College administered by Pietro Ferrua, Ph.D. Upon Dr. Ferrua's retirement, the Avant-Garde and Anarchism accounts were merged by Pietro Ferrua to form a small, independent publishing house named "Avant-Garde Publishers, Producers and Distributors," with the mission to promote and foster avant-garde in the fields of literature, art and politics.