ANN CORNELISEN as born in Cleveland, Ohio, and educated at Vassar College. In 1954 she went to Florence intending to study archaeology; instead, she spent ten years with the Save the Children Fund, setting up nurseries in impoverished villages of southern Italy. In 1974 she received a special award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She died November 12, 2003.

Ann Cornelisen

Any Four Women Could
Rob the Bank of Italy

JACKET NOTES: During an Italian summer of kidnappings and robberies, career women El and Lacey find themselves being waved through roadblocks by Italian police who assume that females are incapable of any premeditated crime. The friends conclude that "any four women could rob the Bank of Italy.. . and the police would still go around looking for four men."

At first, it is a kind of joke to pass the time. Then it evolves from "what if we did?" to "let's do it," and eventually becomes a stunningly successful robbery of a mail train-leaving the perpetrators in a hilarious struggle with their own consciences and the local police.
(© Penguin Books)

Ann Cornelisen

Any Four Women Could Rob the Bank of Italy

Any Four Women Could
Rob the Bank of Italy