In its activity Armando Dadò's publishing house has published more than a thousand books. The catalog, which has been assembled from 1961 to the present, includes works covering the most diverse fields: from literature to art, from history to politics, from costume to ethnography, from current affairs to natural sciences.

Many of the volumes published, particularly in recent years, are related to the regional reality, investigated in its various aspects; a reality that the Locarnese house has sought and seeks to promote not only within the regional and cantonal borders but also outside them, making known beyond Gotthard and in Italy the specificities of our lands.

To find the company's origins, one must go back to the summer of 1961, when a group of friends decided to gather forces and the necessary funds to start a new printing house in Locarno. Officially, it was born on July 22 of that year, the day of incorporation of a limited company that declared a share capital of 150,000 francs and that also included in its board of directors Plinio Martini, a writer from Valmaggio who a few years later would enliven the literary scene in Italian-speaking Switzerland.

The company's founding was a success.

Prudent beginnings: in the early years the business is essentially that of a small printing house employing less than half a dozen employees. The company is set up in a couple of rooms in the old Pax Building in Muralto, just across the street from the FFS Station (it is by virtue of this proximity that it will be given the name Station Typography). The earliest works are commercial prints, composed in lead and imprinted according to the methods of a tradition that has now faded away.

To the owner, however, the sole activity of a printer is not enough: he discovers a passion for books. Armando Dadò came to publishing through an acquaintance that would later turn into a fertile friendship: that with the poet and engraver Giovanni Bianconi, who proposed that he publish one of his books on regional ethnography. The gratification felt in 1965 at the release of Artigianati scomparsi confirmed the young Valmaggiore printer in his hopes and persuaded him to embark on a road certainly difficult, fraught with pitfalls and difficulties, but also made of vivid satisfactions, human contacts and intimate commonalities.

Of fundamental importance will be the meeting with Piero Bianconi, Giovanni's brother: his Eyes on Ticino and Ticino as it was are works that--beyond the almost unhoped-for sales success--will confirm Dadò in his cultural intentions.

Cultural activity, civic engagement

During the 1970s, the directions of the publishing house became more precise, so much so that some specific themes marked much of the book production of those years. Above all, there is the participation in the civil debate of that period, when the people of Ticino became aware of the "wounds" inflicted on their lands by almost thirty years of reckless exploitation of natural resources, unbridled urbanization, and land sell-off. It is in the works of Piero Bianconi, and other authors, that the need to recover and defend a heritage of peasant civilization endangered (if not already largely compromised) by deleterious economic and social dynamics triggered in Ticino since the post-World War II period becomes evident. The interest in the history, events and aspects of the past is confirmed by the publishing success of several other works appearing in those years: suffice it to mention the Storia del Cantone Ticino by Giulio Rossi and Eligio Pometta and its twenty thousand copies sold.

By that time the Locarnese house had set firm roots. At the same time, the printing industry experienced a real technological revolution that led to the abolition of lead to make way for new photoreproduction techniques and, above all, the advent of information technology. Publishing activity can thus strengthen and publications begin to order themselves into a program consistent with the directions of the house.

It is thus that at the beginning of the 1980s the series of "The Chestnut" and of "The Workshop": in the former there are testimonies of authors from the past, while the latter is reserved for studies conducted according to the most modern research criteria. In particular in the "The Chestnut Tree" Dadò begins from the very beginning to offer works by authors such as Karl Viktor von Bonstetten, Hans Rudolf Schinz and Otto Weiss, whose translation and publication will make a fundamental contribution to cantonal historiography.

Horizons expand

Starting in the second half of the 1980s, the commitment in the field of translations grows, and this opens new interesting perspectives for the Locarnese publishing house: while continuing in the work of enhancing the cultural heritage of Italian-speaking Switzerland, Dadò also turns its attention to national history and literatures. The spectrum thus widens, so that themes of regional interest are overlaid with works of broader scope, which manage to gain the attention of the Italian press and public as well.

The 1990s were marked by a series of initiatives that profiled Dadò's cultural directions even more: among these can certainly be mentioned the collaboration with Pro Grigioni Italiano that led to the birth of the series of the same name, the publication of the three volumes of the  Introduction to the Natural Landscape and the nine volumes of the  Atlas of Rural Construction - co-edited with the Cantonal Museum of Natural History, respectively with the Higher Technical School of Canton Ticino - which are among the most important works that have appeared in Ticino in recent years.

During the decade, several new series have seen the light of day. That of "The Classics", directed by Carlo Carena, already boasts a dozen masterpieces of our civilization in its catalog: we cite the Job's Book, Voltaire's Treatise on Tolerance, Erasmus of Rotterdam's Lament of Peace, the Manzoni's History of the Infamous Column, as well as the new translation of The Gospels, edited by a group of distinguished Italian specialists, an edition that has also been widely and positively echoed in the Italian cultural world.

Attention and interest is also aroused by the "Alea" series, in which collections by such undisputed poets as Piero Bigongiari, Jacques Dupin, Neuro Bonifazi, Fabio Muggiasca, Dubravko Pusek, Gilberto Isella, Ismail Kadaré and Giovanni Bonalumi have converged. In particular, the collections of the latter two authors have won significant recognition from Italian critics: Kadaré with the work The Winter Beaches, which won the Brianza Region Prize in 1996; Bonalumi with The Crossing of the Gotthard, a series of poetic translations from French and German that was also awarded the City of Monselice Prize; an award that, as far as translation is concerned, is the most prestigious in the entire Italian area.

But the increased editorial commitment has taken the form of several other initiatives: this is the case of the series "Il Cardellino" - where literary works by Swiss and foreign authors chosen according to the criteria of variety and originality are hosted - and that of "I Sottili" which collects texts in minor as far as editorial form is concerned but of acute and penetrating intellectual depth.

Then in 1998, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the constitution of the federal state, a series entitled "I Cristalli - Helvetia nobilis" was inaugurated, intended for works of fiction and nonfiction, never previously translated or no longer available, by mostly Swiss German-, French- and Romansh-speaking writers. Masterpieces such as Switzerland. History of a Happy People by Denis de Rougemont and The Saint by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, The Pain of the Peasants by Corinna Bille, Adam and Eve by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz,From the Berlin Diary by Max Frisch, and texts by many other writers of literary depth such as Walser, Chappaz, Muschg, Tocqueville, Gotthelf, Jung, Dürrenmatt, Zweig, Mme de Staël and others. With Switzerland between Origins and Progress by Peter von Matt, the series reached the milestone of fifty published titles, and since then the activity has continued with renewed vigor. The intention is for these texts to contribute to a reflection on Swiss identity and the long path that led to the formation of the present state.

Among the latest additions are two series that are bringing great satisfaction to the publisher. One is "La Rondine", which collects the best fruits of Swiss-Italian fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, started in 2000 with a new edition of Lord of the Poor Dead by Felice Filippini then continued with the release of Lungo la strada, an original collection of prose by Anna Gnesa, of Requiem for Aunt Domenica by Plinio Martini and from The Sand Quarry by Pio Ortelli as well as the new editions of Family Tree by Piero Bianconi and The Father's Voice by Ugo Canonica, and Remo Beretta's unpublished The Days and Death. The second was born in 2008 with The Baroness of the Islands, by Daniela Calastri-Winzenried. It is "The Birch Tree", which, following the example of this pioneer plant, gives a chance to not-yet-established writers to propose themselves to the reading public.

Recent is the launch of the "Switzerland's Challenges" series, edited by political scientist Oscar Mazzoleni, which aims to reflect on the Swiss reality from contributions by specialists in the field.

Not only books

The diversification of publishing activities has led Dadò to enter the world of periodicals as well. He did so by initiating the publication of two regional periodicals: La Rivista del Locarnese e valli in 1994 and The Mendrisiotto in 1999, which over the years have become widely established in the local social fabric, acquiring their own identity and authority. In the wake of the success of the two magazines, the last few years have seen the birth of two new publications, La Turrita, aimed at readers in the Bellinzona and Magadino Plain, and Il Ceresio, a periodical for the Lugano area.

Present and Future

In the restricted Ticino publishing market, the book production of the Dadò publishing house is to be considered exceptional in many ways: there are now almost thirty volumes that come out each year under its brand name. A brand that is a guarantee of quality, both in terms of the cultural level of the publications and the graphic excellence of the product. It is no coincidence that some of the works published in Locarno have been awarded the "Lake Maggiore Prize" and that others have won the competition held by the jury of "The Most Beautiful Swiss Books of the Year," sponsored by the Federal Department of the Interior.

But other awards have gratified Dadò's activities: in 1991, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the Confederation, the Locarnese publisher was awarded the printing and publication of the Dizionario delle letterature svizzere; and even greater prestige brought the house the Italian edition of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, a monumental work of research that started in 2002 and ended in 2014 with the thirteenth volume. An operation, this one, that subjected the publishing house to a not inconsiderable effort, as much in the preparation and printing of the volumes as in their promotion and dissemination.

Now having passed the half-century mark, the Locarnese publishing house finds itself at a moment that, when compared to a man's life, corresponds to maturity. A moment when experience and the now full consciousness of one's identity induce one to lavish one's best energies. A goal and a challenge.

This is what the publishing house will propose to do in the coming years: continuing to offer readers works of value and quality, capturing the most important voices of fiction and non-fiction from Italian-speaking Switzerland, proposing in translation those equally significant from other national cultures, and finally promoting our cultural specificities beyond regional boundaries, in Italy and Europe.

Services offered

For more than 50 years, Typografia Stazione SA has been active in the Locarno area. With the most modern machinery and trained and competent staff, we are able to meet even the most special needs of our customers.
Most requested services include:
-    Brochures and leaflets
-    Magazines
-    Files and books
-    Envelopes and stationery
-   Business cards
-   Notepads
If you have an idea but don't know how to implement it, our graphic designers are available to shape your creativity!