Bitter Spring
Page 41
84
“sublime concepts”: “Emergency Exit,” pp. 48, 51.
85
breaking three ribs: Franzinelli, I tentacoli dell’OVRA, p. 83.
85
“If I get twenty years”: La Stampa, March 14, 1928, p. 1.
85
“Dearest brother”: Silone to Romolo, April 25, 1928, Archivio Silone, Pescina.
86
Someone who writes like this: Quoted in Peloso, “Don Orione,” pp. 146–47.
86
The real perpetrators: See Franzinelli, I tentacoli dell’OVRA, pp. 77–90, and Canosa, I servizi secreti del Duce, pp. 69–78.
86
“From Basel, Guido”: Quoted in Biocca and Canali, L’informatore, p. 123.
86
“I canceled my trip”: ACS, Polizia Politica, Materia, b. 95; quoted ibid., pp. 258–59.
87
“Who will now help”: Letter intercepted by the Fascist police, April 28, 1928; quoted in Quaderni Siloniani, January 1998, p. 7.
88
Don Flavio Peloso: Peloso, “Don Orione,” p. 153n121.
89
redacted by prison officials: See letter, dated June 9, 1931, in Archivio Silone, Pescina. “Dearest Secondino, By now you will have heard that the Special Tribunal has sentenced me to twelve years in prison and three years of surveillance and the interdiction of holding public office; I didn’t even want to write to you about the verdict to better tell you how it has left me indifferent and [redacted]. When my lawyer turned to console me, I spontaneously gave him an earful, loud and clear: [redacted].”
89
“Now, if I read”: Quoted in Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 102.
89
“You said it well”: No date, but from the prison in Perugia. Archivio Silone, Pescina.
89
A devoted exchange: The letters are archived in the Fondo Silone in Florence with copies at the Archivio Silone in Pescina.
90
“I must make”: Romolo Tranquilli to Silone, April 7, May 5, May 23, 1931.
90
confess to Don Orione: Peloso, “Don Orione,” p. 156. In a letter to Don Antonio Ruggeri of February 1, 1979, Don Antonio Cerasani recounted a conversation with Don Orione that the latter had heard Romolo’s confession and “had a holy death . . . an enviable death.” Darina Silone recounts the scene in Colloqui, p. 94.
90
Silone was notified: “Dear Secondino, With a sorrowful heart I must tell you that on October 11, I went to visit your brother Romolo at Procida and found him gravely ill; in fact on October 27, he peacefully passed away . . . Be strong, dear cousin (on this glorious All Souls’ Day). I swear you have done your duty. I’ll make arrangements for a tombstone in his memory.” Pomponio Tranquilli to Ignazio Silone, November 2, 1932; Archivio Silone, Pescina. Pomponio Tranquilli paid 10 lire for the cross to mark Romolo’s grave.
90
attempted to exhume the body: Ruggeri, Don Orione, pp. 78–79.
91
“I have tried”: “Emergency Exit,” p. 93; and “Alcune domande a un francotiratore del socialismo,” Critica Sociale, November 20, 1965; reprinted in ISRS, vol. 2, p. 1272. Quoted by Darina Silone in “Le ultime ore di Ignazio Silone,” in Severina, p. 173. I have not, though, been able to find the letter, and some have speculated that Silone, by inventing such a letter, may have been adding more tragedy to an already tragic situation.
91
“A young Italian”: Quoted in Sutro, “Note on Ignazio Silone,” p. 208.
91
“The life of a revolutionary”: “Le idee che sostengo,” p. 1389.
92
“documents have nothing”: The episode, recounted in “Emergency Exit,” pp. 74–77, is corroborated by Togliatti, with some minor variations, in L’Unità, January 6, 1950: “It generally really went as Silone relates.” Togliatti and Silone reported to leadership of the PCI a few weeks later (April 1927), documents preserved in the Archivio Antonio Gramsci in Rome and reproduced in Gasbarrini and Gentile, Ignazio Silone. Comunista, pp. 201–36.
92
“unanimously” condemned Trotsky: “Emergency Exit,” pp. 82–83.
92
Silone’s expulsion: For this episode, see the official party history in Spriano, Storia del partito comunista italiano, vol. 2, pp. 230–61. Interestingly, Silone fares well in Spriano’s officially sanctioned study.
92
“to disappear”: “Emergency Exit,” p. 93.
92
The dispute revolved: E. H. Carr, Twilight of the Comintern, 1930–1935, pp. 239, 255.
93
Trapped by party intrigue: “Un caso di malavita politica,” Lo Stato Operaio, May 1931, pp. 291, 294.
93
“the party must”: Quoted in Gasbarrini and Gentile, Ignazio Silone. Comunista, pp. ix–x.
93
Silone’s close confidant: On the relationship between Tasca and Silone, see Soave, Senza tradirsi, senza tradire.
94
parallel fates: Elisa Signori, “Ignazio Silone nell’esilio svizzero,” Nuova Antologia 2132 (1979): 94.
94
“The young people”: “Al colloquio con Silone,” Il Messagero, August 22, 1966.
95
Between Tasca’s expulsion: I am indebted to David Bidussa for making the Silone-Tasca letters available to me. See his careful reconstruction of the epistolary exchange and collection of letters in “Dialogato per un rinnovamento socialista,” pp. 593–671; the quote here is from p. 625.
95
“Buying paper is”: Silone to Tasca, December 2, 1930.
95
He dashed off: Originally published in 1934 as Der Fascismus: seine Enstehung und seine Entwicklung. The original Italian manuscript was lost in Silone’s many moves across Europe. An unauthorized Italian edition appeared as Il fascismo. Origini e sviluppo in 1992; a more authoritative edition, translated from the German by Marina Buttarelli, appeared in 2002.
95
“Even at the risk”: Silone to Tasca, December 2, 1930.
95
“Eating every day”: Silone to Tasca, January 16, 1931.
95
On June 20, 1930: Ercoli (Togliatti) to Pasquino (Silone), June 20 and August 5, 1930; Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 1.
96
“Dream of not”: Silone to Adami (Romano Cocchi), Zurich, May 30, 1931, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 1.
96
“Certain comrades”: Barbara Seidenfeld Tresso to Angelo Tasca, January 15, 1931, quoted in Bidussa, “Dialogato,” p. 632.
97
“These were the charges”: Silone to Tasca, June 24, 1931, ibid., p. 637.
97
only be expelled: “Communist parties do not tolerate resignations. They recognize only expulsions.” “Emergency Exit,” p. 95.
97
Summoned one last time: “L’espulsione di Pasquini dale file dell’I.C.,” Lo Stato Operaio, July 1931, pp. 362–65. No official record of the meeting at which Silone was expelled has been published. For Togliatti’s version of events, see Opere, vol. 3 (Rome: Riuniti, 1973), pp. 341–53.
97
“An outlawed revolutionary”: The Seed Beneath the Snow, p. 585.
98
una piccola morte : “The Situation of the ‘Ex,’ ” p. 101. It is unlikely that Silone—famously shy of sexuality in his writing—was consciously evoking the French la petite mort.
98
“for any motive”: “Rethinking Progress,” p. 158.
98
“In the struggle”: “The Situation of the ‘Ex,’ ” pp. 108–109.
98
When oppression: “Parliamo di me,” p. 1257.
99
Silone would drink: Seidenfeld, “Le tre sorelle,” p. 27.
99
Hungarian count Michael Károlyi: Mihály Károlyi, Memoirs of Michael Károlyi: Faith Without Illusion, trans. Ca
therine Károlyi (New York: Dutton, 1957).
99
It was Brupbacher: Seidenfeld, “Le tre sorelle,” p. 27.
100
Gabriella continued to live: Ibid., p. 31.
101
“Two years ago”: Quoted in Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 61.
101
“To a small number”: Attachment n. 2 to will; photocopy of original in Gasbarrini and Gentile, Silone: Tra l’Abruzzo, p. 26.
101
“I propose to remain”: Silone to Tasca, May 30, 1934; Tasca to Silone, September 14, 1934; in Bidussa, “Dialogato,” p. 655.
102
“The truth is so sad”: Balabanoff to Silone, November 19, 1936, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 2, doc. 143.
102
“shoot the vipers!”: Mosbacher to Silone, September 14, 1936, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 2, doc. 113.
102
Just months after: Proving that instant celebrity-politico books are not new, Badoglio’s La guerra d’Etiopia was published by Mondadori (Silone’s future publisher after the war) with a preface by none other than Mussolini himself. It appeared in English as The War in Abyssinia (London: Methuen; New York: Putnam, 1937). Tellingly, there was no English translator listed.
102
“it is necessary”: Rosselli to Silone, February 1937, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 3, doc. 36.
102
“Give my regards”: Silone to Balabanoff, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 3, doc. 105.
102
“After the death”: “Emergency Exit,” pp. 73–74.
103
“side by side”: “The Situation of the ‘Ex,’ ” p. 104.
103
“a very sad day”: “Emergency Exit,” p. 97.
103
“the rashness”: “Polikushka,” p. 40.
103
no “superior moral virtue”: “Emergency Exit,” pp. 80, 83.
103
“There are many”: “The Choice of Companions,” p. 126.
THREE WRITING IN/AND EXILE
104
“Finally, the English”: Silone to Eric Mosbacher, September 9, 1936, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 2, fascicolo 1, doc. 110.
105
“private war against”: The Situation of the ‘Ex,’ ” pp. 105, 107.
105
“my second homeland”: Quoted in Castagnola Rossini, Incontri, pp. 31–32.
105
“One is cured”: “Emergency Exit,” p. 90.
105
“So far, I have kept you”: The letter, dated December 8, 1933, can be found in the Archivio Silone at the Fondazione di Studi Storici in Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 1. Curiously, Dr. Strasser’s address, Mythenstrasse 23, Zurich, was the site of a Swiss society formed in February 1918 to combat venereal disease. See also the April 20, 1936, invitation to speak from Dr. Heinrich Meng, a Freudian psychoanalyst, in the Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 2.
105
“delays my convalescence”: Quoted in Biocca, Silone, p. 135.
106
“I have been cured”: Ibid., pp. 161–62.
106
“I continue to go”: Ibid., p. 169.
107
“The beautiful young lady”: The description is from the jacket copy of a novel by Eveline Hasler, Aline und die Erfindung der Liebe (Aline and the Invention of Love) (Zurich: Nagel & Kimche, 2000).
107
Silone spent much of his life: The correspondence between Silone and Aline Valangin Rosenbaum, along with Silone’s poem, “le monde et la barque” and his version of “La Genese” (an alternate and irreverent version of Genesis) is in the Swiss Archives in Bern. I am indebted to Deborah Holmes and Elizabeth Leake for sharing them with me.
107
writing sporadic letters: The letters, in French, are at the Archivio Silone in Pescina, the Swiss State Archives in Bern, and the Archivio Aline Valangin in the Canton Library of Lugano.
108
“The spirit of the ark”: Swiss State Archives, Bern, translated from the French into Italian by Vittoriano Esposito in Quaderni Siloniani 1–2 (2003–2004): 16–19.
108
“We wrote to each other”: Aline Valangin, Erinnerungen, partially reprinted in Peter Kamber, Geschichte zweier Leben: Wladimir Rosenbaum & Aline Valangin (Zurich: Limmat Verlag Genossenschaft, 1990), p. 100; quoted in Falcetto, “Cronologia,” pp. lxxxii–lxxxiii.
110
“The man was tall”: Magnani, Una famiglia italiana, pp. 90, 98.
111
“Aber de Duce”: Ibid., p. 68.
111
When Hitler appeared: Ibid., pp. 125, 132.
111
Established a complex network: Holmes, Ignazio Silone in Exile, pp. 137–39.
111
The process of “reinvention”: The Reinvention of Ignazio Silone.
111
“The victory of my soul”: Mercuri, Memoir from a Swiss Prison, p. 26.
112
“Driven by homesickness”: “Rethinking Progress,” p. 157.
112
“obeying at all times”: “Letteratura e politica,” Critica Sociale, April 20, 1957; reprinted in ISRS, vol. 2, pp. 1247–51.
112
“writing for me”: “Parliamo di me,” pp. 1255–60.
112
a fictional town: There is considerable dispute as to whether Fontamara was based on Pescina; Silone himself was sometimes ambiguous, perhaps purposely so. In the Angelo Tasca Archive at the Feltrinelli Foundation in Milan, there is a four-page typewritten résumé in French of Fontamara: Roman de vie contemporaine. Among the “advertissements”: “Fontamara existe réellement, mais son nom véritable est Pescina . . .” See Judy Rawson, “Un riassunto di un Ur-Fontamara,” in Silone and Bagnoli, Per Ignazio Silone, pp. 21–31. As the document is unsigned, it is not possible to determine whether this was Tasca’s summary or Silone’s. (The slight mistakes might lead a reader to suppose the latter, as Tasca’s French was notably better than Silone’s.)
112
“Ill and in exile”: “The Painful Return,” pp. 146–47.
113
“I believe they”: July 29, 1930, Archivio Franca Magnani Schiavetti, quoted in Biocca, Silone, pp. 177–78.
113
“I am working”: Silone to Tasca, January 22, 1931, in Bidussa, “Dialogato,” p. 633.
113
so poor that: Remarks by Darina Silone at the centenary commemorations of Silone’s birth, May 1, 2000, Pescina.
113
In his own personal copy: The book, inscribed on April 12, 1933, is on display at the Museo Silone, Pescina. The line is also inscribed on a painting of the Pietà where “Christ looked like a cafone,” mentioned in Bread and Wine, p. 403.
115
“The art of storytelling”: Foreword to Fontamara, p. 13.
116
“Fate has decreed”: November 6, 1931, Collezione Franca Magnani Schiavetti, Rome; quoted in Biocca, “Ignazio Silone e la polizia politica,” p. 90.
116
Silone turned to his circle: See Silone’s September 30, 1955, letter (in French) to Arthur Koestler, who had created some controversy over his remarks about the genesis and original publication of Fontamara. Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 3, fascicolo 17.
116
Salvemini wrote back: Salvemini to Valangin, October 2, 1931, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 1.
117
“My impression is”: Tasca to Silone, October 18, 1931, in Bidussa, “Dialogato,” p. 641.
117
“act of pure generosity”: “Eric und Nettie,” Zurich, October 14, 1967, quoted in d’Eramo, L’opera di Ignazio Silone, p. 18.
118
The book was typeset: Silone to Arthur Koestler, Rome, September 30, 1955, quoted in d’Eramo, L’opera di Ignazio Silone, pp. 18–19n4.
118
“to be confiscated”: Dietrich Strothmann, Nationalsozialistiche Literaturpolitik: Ein Beitrag zur Publizistik im Dritten Reich (Bonn: Bouvier, 1968), p. 230. In 1935, Silone’s Der Fascismus was added to the list.
119
“I hastened in search”: “Parliamo di me,” p. 1259.
119
“to remain faithful”: Silone to Borgese, May 12, 1937, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 3, doc. 98.