“In that single moment”: Darina describes the revelation in 1974 during a visit to the temple of Chidambaram in “The Making of an Earth Citizen.”
170
“I did quite a lot”: Colloqui, p. 58.
170
Her attempt: Personal correspondence with the author, April 17, 2000.
171
found the whole episode: Colloqui, pp. 51–52.
171
“permanently scandalized.”: Ibid., pp. 52–53.
172
“Good morning. May I”: Darina recounts the episode in a letter to her parents, dated December 31, 1941, signed “L’Enfant prodigue” and intercepted by the Fascist police. She reads from the letter in Colloqui, p. 101.
172
“What a beautiful country!”: Darina Silone, “Saluto conclusivo,” closing remarks at an international conference, Pescina, May 1, 2001.
172
“The Allies are showing themselves”: The memorandum to President Roosevelt dated October 23, 1944, prepared and signed by the director of the OSS, William J. Donovan, was copied to Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy. The document was declassified by the CIA and is now in the Records of the Office of Strategic Services, Record Group 226, entry 92, box 181, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. I am grateful to Paul B. Brown of the Modern Military Records Textual Archives Services Division for making a photocopy available for use.
173
notorious Fosse Ardeatine massacre: On the so-called Ardeatine Caves massacre, see Robert Katz, Death in Rome (New York: Macmillan, 1967), and Alessandro Portelli, The Order Has Been Carried Out (New York: Palgrave, 2003); on the prison at via Tasso, see Stanislao G. Pugliese, Desperate Inscriptions: Graffiti from the Nazi Prison in Rome (Boca Raton, FL: Bordighera Press, 2002).
174
They lived on: Colloqui, p. 68.
174
“after years of using false papers”: “The Situation of the ‘Ex,’ ” p. 101.
174
“he was not capable”: Interview with author in the Silone apartment on via Villa Ricotti, Rome, March 15, 2000.
175
He had a “repugnance”: Author’s Note to Bread and Wine, p. 180.
175
“Why do you live”: Lewis, The City of Florence, p. 3.
176
One scholar has detected: d’Eramo, Ignazio Silone, p. 37.
177
so-called guitti: Colloqui, p. 61.
177
English “a fetish”: Darina Silone to the author, August 11, 2000.
177
friend of Indira Gandhi: When Darina wrote to Indira Gandhi asking what she should bring from Italy, Gandhi replied, “A kilo of parmigiano cheese; it’s very useful in the kitchen.” Colloqui, p. 105.
177
“sixteen unexpectedly delightful”: Darina Silone, postcard dated October 20, 1981, Vassar College, Mary McCarthy Papers, box 223, folder 223.6.
177
“Often he would seek refuge”: Remarks at the centenary commemorations of Silone’s birth, May 1, 2000, Pescina.
178
“poky, horrible little flat”: Letter to the author, April 17, 2000.
178
Darina was fascinated: Colloqui, pp. 78–79.
179
“He had trouble understanding”: Ibid., p. 14.
179
A surreptitious peek: Silone’s study—complete with desk, typewriter, and the photos—has been transferred and re-created at the Centro Studi Silone in Pescina.
179
Gide, or Mann: O’Grady, Irish Independent, August 10, 2003.
179
Silone’s 1942 call: Interview with the author, November 27, 2000, Rome.
180
did not undergo psychoanalysis: See her letter to Le Monde of May 28, 2000, p. 13: “I can say with confidence that the ‘psychoanalysis with Jung in 1929’ is a myth, nothing more: Silone did not meet Jung until around 1935. In 1929, as several letters show, Silone could not afford the luxury of psychoanalysis.”
180
his journal Monde: “I can quickly write for you a two-column article on Jung . . . As you know, together with Freud and Adler, Jung represents one of the masters who are fighting for supremacy of modern psychology. Recently, Freud has begun to be translated in France; Adler and Jung are unknown. I would like to take advantage of the book that has just appeared to do a presentation on Jung: an informative, objective article.” Ignazio Silone to Angelo Tasca, October 29, 1930; reproduced in Bidussa, “Dialogato,” p. 626. Silone is probably referring to Jung’s Paracelsus, published in Zurich in 1929.
180
“largely rewritten and fictionalized”: The history of the “missing dedication” is recounted by Silone’s niece, Maria Moscardelli. Seidenfeld’s memoir, with Darina Silone’s notation, is in the Archivio Silone in Pescina.
180
“I am becoming aware”: Colloqui, p. 112.
181
In the summer of 2003: Don Flavio’s testimony is in a letter to Michele Dorigatti and Maffino Maghenzani, editors of Darina Silone’s Colloqui, and is cited on p. 127. The dream is recounted by Darina’s sisters, Cecily, Moira, and Eithne, in a letter one year after Darina’s death, to Dorigatti and Maghenzani, ibid., p. 128.
181
A small Christmas presepio: Don Flavio Peloso, “Ricordo di Darina Silone,” unpublished eulogy, personal correspondence with the author, August 13, 2003. Father Peloso is the director of the Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza, the charitable organization founded by Don Luigi Orione, with headquarters in Rome.
181
“ethical adventure”: Colloqui, p. 125.
FIVE THE PROBLEMS OF POSTFASCISM
182
“moral infection of nihilism”: “The Choice of Companions,” p. 113.
183
If Roselli argued: Gurgo and de Core, Silone, pp. 227–28.
183
“Trotskyist counter-revolutionary”: Ibid., p. 228.
184
film based on Fontamara: A sketch of the screenplay was discovered in the summer of 1996 in the Usellini archive at the Università di Pavia. Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 229n7.
184
Serafino Romualdi: Romualdi left his papers to Cornell University, where they can be consulted in the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives. His memoir, Presidents and Peons (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967), was published the year of his death.
184
“gave us the impression”: Quoted in Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 233.
185
In his diary, Nenni: Nenni, Tempo di guerra fredda, p. 121.
186
“it depends entirely”: Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 235.
186
Writing in early 1945: Ibid., pp. 235, 237.
187
To the Honorable: No date but 1946, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 2, fascicolo 8.
187
But before the end: A most beautiful and evocative portrait of Parri’s fall from power, along with elegiac commentaries on time, memory, and history, is found in Carlo Levi’s The Watch (South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1999).
188
In July 1944: Domenico, Italian Fascists on Trial, p. x.
188
“we should not pretend”: Avanti! February 8, 1946.
189
“Many of us have remained”: Quoted in Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 239.
189
“Let us leave the dead”: Ibid., p. 250.
189
“gotten on my nerves”: La Fiera Letteraria, July 4, 1948.
190
After the first course: Colloqui, pp. 75–76; the curious episode is confirmed by the Contessa Elena Carandini in her memoir, Passata la stagione.
190
An Orwell biographer: Agathocleous, George Orwell, p. 69.
190
191
“an act of life”: Avanti! June 5, 1946, p. 1.
192
“sad epilogue”: “Nel bagaglio degli esuli,” in Esperienze e studi socialisti (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1954).
192
On behalf of Zauri’s illiterate mother: This episode is reconstructed from Silone, The Secret of Luca, and Darina Silone, Colloqui, pp. 72–74.
194
“I asked your mother”: “Ritorno a Fontamara,” Comunità, March–April 1949, p. 55.
194
His farewell editorial: “Autocritica,” Avanti! July 14, 1946, quoted in Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 246.
195
Thirteen years later: Letter appeared in Corriere della Sera, quoted ibid., p. 248.
196
“If we do not make ‘Europe’ ”: “Missione europea del socialismo,” in Europa federata, ed. Ernesto Rossi (Milan: Edizioni di Comunità, 1947); reprinted in ISRS, vol. 2, pp. 1002–13; the quote here is from p. 1013.
196
“Together with the social question”: “L’internazionale socialista e l’unità europea,” Oggi, November 1946.
197
“inexorable recognition of defeat”: Pampaloni, “Tra letteratura e politica.”
198
“Battle of the Births”: Giovanna Berneri’s plea for assistance and Silone’s response in Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 2, fascicolo 11.
199
“the psychology of a renegade”: Togliatti, “Contributo alla psicologia di un rinnegato.”
199
“the six that failed”: Roderigo di Castiglia, “I sei che sono falliti,” Rinascita, May 1950.
200
“dear Comrade Silone”: Natalia Sedova Trotsky to Ignazio Silone, July 6, 1951, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 12, fascicolo 12.
201
“two eloquent Europeans”: See the declassified CIA document “Origins of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1949–1950,” www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kentcsi/docs/v38i5a10p.htm.
201
“and I left communism”: Arthur Koestler, The Invisible Writing (New York: Macmillan, 1954), p. 15.
201
“I have always wondered”: Quoted in Coleman, The Liberal Conspiracy, p. 24. Coleman makes the common mistake that Silone lost both parents in the January 1915 earthquake; others have made a more egregious error, in killing off Silone’s entire family in the quake. He is also mistaken in the claim that the name “Ignazio Silone” “meant nothing . . . he wanted an unattractive name to show his disgust with the literary world of the time” (p. 25).
202
“An unforgettable loss”: Quoted ibid., p. 42.
202
State Department “operation”: Darina Silone to Peter Coleman, August 29, 1984; cited ibid., p. 27.
202
“a democracy that”: The speech, “Evitiamo di essere oltranzisti,” was published by Enrico Franceschini in La Repubblica, July 7, 1990.
203
“spirit of its totalitarian crudeness”: G. A. Borgese, “Errore di Belino,” Corriere della Sera, October 8, 1950.
203
“If you still have ears”: “Habeas animam!” in ISRS, vol. 2, pp. 1021–25.
204
“diabolical secret”: Ibid., p. 1025.
205
In October 1950: Coleman, Liberal Conspiracy, p. 142.
205
Italian Association for Cultural Freedom: Ibid., p. 143.
205
“drug addicts of anti-Fascism”: Quoted ibid.
206
“Don’t you realize”: “Testimonianza di Gustaw Herling,” in ISRS, vol. 1, p. xviii.
207
“Vittorini compares himself”: Roderigo di Castiglia, “Vittorini se n’è ghiuto, e soli ci ha lasciato!” Rinascita, August–September 1951.
207
“He might be an anti-Fascist”: Carlo Salinari, L’Unità, July 14, 1952.
207
“The fundamental characteristic”: Carlo Salinari, L’Unità, August 2, 1952.
208
“I considered him in good faith”: Carlo Salinari, L’Unità, July 31, 1952.
208
“a failure, an ugly”: Giuseppe Petronio, Avanti! July 14, 1952.
208
“Silone is one of the very few”: Gurgo and de Core, Silone, p. 283.
208
“My dear, these humble”: The book, with its inscription to Darina dated July 20, 1952, is on display at the Museo Silone in Pescina.
209
“everyone is a bit”: Antonio Gramsci, “Nostro Marx,” Il Grido del Popolo, May 4, 1918; reprinted in David Forgacs, ed., An Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916–1935 (New York: Schocken, 1988), p. 36.
210
“I wouldn’t have had him”: Edmondo Paolini, Altiero Spinelli. Dalla lotta antifascista alla battaglia per la Federazione Europea: 1920–1948 (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1996), p. 131.
210
As Herling points out: ISRS, vol. 1, p. xxii.
210
“This made me realize”: The anecdote is found in La Fiera Letteraria, April 11, 1951.
210
“You believe you go”: Quoted in Colloqui, pp. 70–71.
211
“There are many childish”: “Restare se stessi,” p. 1262.
211
“In my day”: Interview with Bruno Falcetto, in ISRS, vol. 1, p. xvi.
211
“How happy I am”: Herling, Volcano and Miracle, p. 78.
212
“I have never been tempted”: “The Lesson of Budapest,” in Emergency Exit, p. 135.
212
America : “A Trip to Paris,” in Mr. Aristotle, p. 155. A different version is in Bread and Wine, p. 387:
Thirty days in the steamship
And we got to ’Merica
We found neither straw nor hay
We slept on the bare earth
Like beasts of the field.
213
“America is no land”: Buttitta to Silone, n.d. (but 1937); Greenway to Silone, n.d.; Zito to Silone, October 23, 1937, Archivio Silone, Florence, busta 1, fascicolo 3, docs. 156, 179, 207. Silone responded to Zito: “Dear Carmelo Zito, Your letter gave me much pleasure; I spent a year and a half in Calabria during the war.”
214
As Ferdinando Alfonsi: Alfonsi, Ignazio Silone, p. 80.
214
responsible for the patricide: Other antidotes to the streets-paved-with-gold mythos are Pietro Di Donato’s powerful memoir of his father’s death, Christ in Concrete, and Stanley Tucci’s film Big Night.
215
“Note to the Present Edition”: New York University, Tamiment Library, Girolamo Valenti Papers, box 1, folder 13, Correspondence, 1930–1950. I am grateful to Gail Malmgreen of NYU for permission to view the papers. For unknown reasons, the 1936 edition was never published.
215
“a recent echo”: See the original text “Inedito di Silone,” in d’Eramo, Ignazio Silone, pp. 146–48.
216
“Beneath the rags of folklore”: Ibid., p. 148.
217
“After Fontamara, no American”: Diggins, Mussolini and Fascism, p. 251.
217
In 1940, Sumner Welles: Interview with Darina Silone, November 29, 2000.
217
“All things considered”: Silone to Chiaromonte, June 6, 1963, Nicola Chiaromonte Papers, Gen. Mss, box 3, folder 77.
217
“rhetoric of boredom”: “Silone negli Stati Uniti,” La Fiera Letteraria, May 19, 1963.
218
“The General Assembly expresses”: Silone’s speech was reprinted in the AILC’s (Italian Association for Cultural Freedom) Bollettino per la libertà della cultura, June 27, 1960.
218
At least one biography: Gurgo
and de Core, Silone, p. 345.
219
“Though the origin”: Letter to the Editor, “About a Louisiana Jail,” Transition (Kampala, Uganda) 16 (1964): 35.
219
Nello Ajello recounts: Ajello, “Siamo ancora al Venerdì Santo.”
220
“To discover what is being born”: Ignazio Silone, “L’esperienza di Pasolini,” Tempo Presente, December 1966.
220
Pablo Neruda who refused: Another Italian delegate, Antonio Barolini, described the scene in “Silone mortifica il servilismo di Neruda,” La Fiera Letteraria, June 30, 1966.
221
“Change your seat immediately”: Mirella Serri, “Dalla parte di Silone il maladetto,” La Stampa, November 12, 1991.
SIX COLD WAR CULTURE
223
“a painful duty to perform”: “The Situation of the ‘Ex,’ ” pp. 102–103.
223
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