Typographer and Novelist

Giuseppe was the son of Guglielmo Cumbo and Annetta Mamo. Giuseppe Cumbo belonged to a family traditionally associated with the printing industry. His father Guglielmo was a printer and had a printing press at no. 92, St. Ursola Street, Valletta.

His grandfather was Francesco Cumbo, who had owned and ran the Cumbo Press following the introduction of the freedom of the press in Malta.

From his boyhood, Giuseppe Cumbo was fascinated by printing work and was very young when he helped his father Guglielmo. In a short time, Giuseppe Cumbo not only established himself as a printer and popular novelist but as a publisher of his own semi-serious novels.

At the turn of the century, at the age of 17 years, he published two of his own books. These were Il Forza Tad-Destin in 1901 and Relinda in 1902.

In the years to follow he bought new printing equipment and opened a new printing premises at no. 259, Strada San Paolo, Valletta. It was the first in a series of printing presses that he was set to have under the name of  St. Paul. In 1908, he published the semi-serious journal  Il Pappagall at this new printing press.

Giuseppe Cumbo married Enrichetta Ripard on 29 June 1911. At first, Giuseppe and Enrichetta went to live in Alexandria, Egypt, because it was Enrichetta’s wish to go there to be close to her sister.

In Alexandria, she gave birth to their first daughter Maria Aida. After two years, they returned to Malta because Giuseppe could not get used to the style of life of the Arabs in Egypt.

Back in Malta, they lived at Sliema. During WWI, they evacuated from Sliema and went to live with his brother Oreste in Attard. 

It was at the time of his marriage that he bought another printing press, the Tipografia San Paolo at 53, Strada Santa Lucia, Valletta. In 1917, from this typography, he published the popular newspaper il-Ħmar which was owned by Tancredi Camilleri and edited by Gugliermo Arena.

In the interwar period, he also published works for leading novelists who were also intimate friends, among which was Arturo Caruana’s Genoveffa in 1934 and Indri is-Sajjied Malti in 1938.

Due to family exigencies, Giuseppe was forced to close down his printing press in Valletta and open another one instead in Sliema, availing himself of the occasion to increase the number of employees.

During his short stay in Ħamrun, he opened the printing press ‘San Pawl’ – the third after the patron saint of his native parish and Malta – at no. 27, St. Joseph High Road.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.