Important archive of ten ALsS from Benito Mussolini, including a number written from prison, all in Italian, various lengths and formats, 1910–1913. At this period in his life, Mussolini edited the Socialist newspaper La Lotta di Classe [The Class Struggle], augmenting his early enthusiasm for Karl Marx with a mixture of ideas from Friedrich Nietzsche, Auguste Blanqui, and Georges Sorel. In 1910, he became Secretary of the local Socialist party at Forli, espousing political views that would change radically with his ever-increasing influence in Italian politics. When Italy declared war on Turkey in 1911, Mussolini, who then conspicuously styled himself as an anti-patriot, was imprisoned for his pacifist propaganda. In the present group of letters, Mussolini writes on a number of financial, literary, and political matters. A sampling of translated excerpts follows. From a letter of April 25, 1910: “As you see, I’m going through money in this bed of roses, but the publishers are always taking advantage of me and don't pay me.” From a letter of December 10, 1911: “As soon as I received your letter I got down to work, and in a single week in prison I completed more than during a year in freedom. The pages of the translation correspond exactly to those in the book.... At the Thursday meeting Monti hinted to me of the probability of a shipment of newspapers to Cesena. I don’t know if I still have any say in the capital, but if I am still head of the newspaper, and nothing thus far has led me to believe the contrary, I am against this plan.... My detention will not last forever. I have no illusions—I don’t believe in being released or in release on parole. Here it is easy to enter, but not so easy to leave. With women, at least the first time, the opposite is true. But it is certain, indeed very certain, that my crime will be included in the amnesty of March 14.... Misery! I, cheerful? Just like outside. Here I’m doing neither badly nor well. Prison life is a vegetative life. I am calm. That’s all. I read, write, study. I will leave here formidably armed with ideas. As for the rest, time passes. But the nights are endless. Thirteen hours of darkness.” From a letter of December 28, 1911: “The police-legal reprisals and the dishonest cheating of lawyers are now complete.... At midday, next Saturday ... I will leave Forli in chains, along with ordinary criminals, and I will go to Bologna. The prison already has the departure order; I saw it myself this morning.... I have been denied release on parole, which the Forli court granted the other day to a vulgar and ferocious assassin.... I am the victim of abominable machinations and I am somewhat amazed at the silence of our newspaper, which cannot even raise a cry of violent protest! What hope can I still sustain? None.... In Bologna I intend to take a cell for payment. I will be there some twenty days, and I do not want to be mixed in with all the low-life dregs that those prisons contain. And so I will need some money.... I had a rather sad Christmas. Neither the end nor the beginning of the year will be any better....” From a letter of April 1913: “I am writing to you in your capacity as Secretary of the Socialist Section, to inform you of my irrevocable intention to decline my nomination for the Forli council. I am saying and stressing that this is irrevocable, for I am not joking.... The last meeting of the Section showed that there is an extremely serious crisis, perhaps due to my nomination. Then, I must say I am distressed about the incredible political absenteeism that has occurred recently in the Forli council sections. Hundreds of telegrams and protests from every part of Italy arrived at the newspaper, but only two or three of the 40 sections of the Council made themselves heard. He, Socialism, is the house....” Many of the other letters contain additional pleas for funds and references to financial matters. Later appointed editor of the official Socialist newspaper Avanti, Mussolini moved to Milan, where he established himself as the most forceful voice of the Italian Socialist movement. In 1922, he became, at age thirty-nine, the youngest—and ultimately, the most oppressive—Prime Minister in the history of Italy. In very good condition, with scattered toning and soiling, several small fold separations and light handling wear. COA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
