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The Poet and the Dictator Lauro de Bosis Resists Fascism in Italy and America
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Jean McClure Mudge
Book Code: C6964
ISBN: 0-275-96964-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-96964-6
240 pages, maps, photos
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 5/30/2002
List Price: $98.95 (UK Sterling Price: £57.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • The Poet and Dictator can be read on two levels: first, as the only full-length biography of an excepttionally talented and complex individual; second, as a case study of the response to Facism in the 1920's of a certain segment of Italian society....[a] most worthwhile and commendable work.
    —The International History Review     June 2003
  • A biography of the Italian poet and liberal intellectual (born 1901) who in October 1931 flew a solo flight over Rome, showering the city with anit-Fascist leaflets before plunging to his death;draws on previously untapped archives.
    —The Chronicle of Higher Education     June 7, 2002
  • Endorsement From Piero Boitani
    University of Rome "La Sapienza." 2001 Lauro de Bosis Lecturer
    Harvard University:     Jean Mudge recounts a fascinating story that partakes of both Romantic adventure and tough political resistance. She pays attention to de Bosis's intellectual and family background as well as to his work as poet and translator. Above all, her work splendidly reconstructs, drawing on hitherto unread material, his political development from initial fascist sympathies to a growingly anti-Mussolinian position.
  • Endorsement From Robert Whol
    author
    A Passion for Wings:     It's unlikely that de Bosis will find a more sympathetic or perceptive biographer. The range of research is impressive, and I found myself muttering "brava" time and again as the book made its way surefootedly through perilous areas of Italian and American history.
Description: This vivid biography is a study of the life and times of the Italian poet-activist, Lauro de Bosis. Remarkably productive as a poet, cultural diplomat, and political subversive, de Bosis founded and lead an underground resistance group, the National Alliance for Liberty. His actions culminated in a dramatic solo flight over Rome in October 1931, showering the city with protest leaflets against the Fascist dictatorship before plunging to his death. This feat brought world attention to the existence of anti-Fascism, much to Mussolini's chagrin and rage. De Bosis's story, told against the backdrop of Rome's politics in the 1920s, is at once personal, national, and international. World figures --- from Mussolini, Croce, Ezra Pound, to Walter Lippmann, Thornton Wilder, and his lover, the actress Ruth Draper --- were all within de Bosis's compass. Gifted, quirky, original, and impulsive but principled to the point of giving up both personal love and family for his cause, his life shows how Mussolini's regime systematically cleared out the cream of Italy's young liberal intellectuals. Based on previously untapped archival resources, this is the first biography of a young, gifted Italian poet who dared to challenge the power of a totalitarian state with his practical idealism and fierce determination to protect Italy's fragile democracy from il Duce.
LC Card Number: 2001053084
LCC Class: PQ4807
Dewey Class: 851
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