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Letters From Prison, Volume 2 by Antonio Gramsci β€” book cover

Letters From Prison, Volume 2

by Antonio Gramsci, Frank Rosengarten (Editor), Raymond Rosenthal (Translator)
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Overview

Antonio Gramsci (1891--1937) was one of the most original political thinkers in Western Marxism and an exceptional intellectual. Arrested and imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime in 1926, Gramsci died before fully regaining his freedom, yet he wrote extensive letters while incarcerated, rich with insight into the physical and psychological tortures of prison. In meticulous detail, Gramsci records how political prisoners, himself included, contend with the fear of illness and death and the rules and regulations that threaten to efface their individuality. Forming an incomparable link between Gramsci's intellectual passion and his emotional vulnerability, Letters from Prison shows a man reconstructing his life while being separated from it, struggling to recapture the primary relationships that once defined his identity. Frank Rosengarten divides more than four hundred Gramsci letters into two companion volumes, complete with a chronology of the thinker's crucial life experiences, biographical notes on his correspondents, and a bibliography of works cited in his letters.

Columbia University Press

Synopsis

Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was one of the most original political thinkers in Western Marxism and an exceptional intellectual. Arrested and imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime in 1926, Gramsci died before fully regaining his freedom, yet he wrote extensive letters while incarcerated, rich with insight into the physical and psychological tortures of prison. In meticulous detail, Gramsci records how political prisoners, himself included, contend with the fear of illness and death and the rules and regulations that threaten to efface their individuality. Forming an incomparable link between Gramsci's intellectual passion and his emotional vulnerability, Letters from Prison shows a man reconstructing his life while being separated from it, struggling to recapture the primary relationships that once defined his identity. Frank Rosengarten divides more than four hundred Gramsci letters into two companion volumes, complete with a chronology of the thinker's crucial life experiences, biographical notes on his correspondents, and a bibliography of works cited in his letters.

About the Author, Antonio Gramsci

Frank Rosengarten is professor emeritus of Italian and comparative literature at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of The Italian Anti-Fascist Press; The Writings of the Young Marcel Proust (1885-1900): An Ideological Critique; and Urbane Revolutionary: C.L.R. James and the Struggle for a New Society.

Raymond Rosenthal (1915--1995) was a world-renowned translator of Italian literature.

Columbia University Press

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Editorials

Journal of the History of Philosophy

The most complete and authoritative edition of Antonio Gramsci's prison letters available in any language. Raymond Rosenthal's translation... is reliable and gives a good sense of the colloquial style of the original. Frank Rosengarten's extensive notes, together with his introduction, represent a significant piece of Gramsci scholarship.

The Guardian

These volumes are laced with political insight. They are also shrewd, humorous, brave, and resourceful.

β€” Terry Eagleton

Socialism and Democracy

Painstakingly edited by Frank Rosengarten and movingly translated by Raymond Rosenthal... the letters are illuminated by critical commentary that highlights the contrast between the material conditions of Gramsci's confinement and the extraordinary spaciousness of his intellectual concerns.

Radical Philosophy

A credit to publisher, translator, and editor.

The Journal of the Historical Association

Invaluable.... The Letters serve to confirm Gramsci's remarkable intellectual stature.... Equally apparent is the depth of his commitment to his beliefs.

The Guardian

These volumes are laced with political insight. They are also shrewd, humorous, brave, and resourceful.

Joseph A. Buttigieg

One of the most poignant human stories of our century.

Radical Philosophy

Gramsci sought to turn involuntary abstention from activism to innovative political account, embarking in February 1929 on what were to become the . . . extraordinary Prison Notebooks. Finally, in these Letters from Prison he bequeathed a desolate record of what he diagnosed as 'prisonitis, ' or the vitiations induced by the rigors of resistance to the prison regime. . . . The finished product is a credit to publisher, translator and editor.

Booknews

Arguably the most famous collection of letters in this century, the great Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) wrote these letters while imprisoned by the Italian Fascists from 1926 until six days before his death in 1937. Personal and moving, they explore all manner of questions in history, sociology, philosophy, folklore, and literature--always within the overriding context of the isolation and harshness of prison life. The most complete and authoritative English edition, these two volumes contain 484 letters--including 28 that have never before been published in any collection--based on the Italian editions of 1965 and 1988. Available individually, Volume 1 (07552-9) covers the years from 1926 to 1930, and Volume 2 (07554-5) the years from 1931 to 1937. Essential for all academic and public libraries. (RC) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Book Details

Published
July 26, 2011
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Pages
431
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780231075558

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