I Belong Only to Myself: The Life and Writings of Leda Rafanelli

by Leda Rafanelli, Andrea Pakieser (Editor)

Leda Rafanelli (1880–1971) was one of the most prolific propagandists in early twentieth century Italy. She began working as a typesetter in her teens, and went on to found and run several publishing houses. Her own body of work included scores of novels, pamphlets, short stories, children’s books, essays, and poems. A comrade of Benito Mussolini before he was a fascist, she converted to both anarchism and Islam at the age of twenty, a combination characteristic of her iconoclastic approach to life and politics. Rafanelli developed her own uniquely social form of individualist anarchism, which shunned the egoist trappings of the times, and practiced a deeply personal form of Islam even as she denounced religion. She countered both patriarchy and bourgeois feminism with “feminility,” a concept that predates some similar tenets of radical feminism by many decades. As some anarchists fell in with Marinetti and futurism’s often reactionary bravado, Rafanelli boldly declared herself a “Passist.”


Weaving excerpts from Rafanelli’s novels, poems, and essays (presented here for the first time in English translation) with extensive biographical research, Andrea Pakieser traces a biographical path through the waves of strikes and insurrections that accompanied the shaky foundation of the Italian nation; the evolution and offshoots of the anarchist movement as it mixed and blended with syndicalism and egoist currents; and the chaos and insecurity brought by fascism and global war. Withdrawing from public life after WWII, Leda embarked on a new career as a palm and card reader, while working on writing biographical sketches of her anarchist comrades and continuing to invent her personal and unorthodox forms of freedom.


Andrea Pakieser is a Andrea Pakieser is a writer, researcher, and translator.

Genres: Feminism, Biography, Politics, Nonfiction, Memoir

175 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2014

About the author

Leda Bruna Rafanelli was an Italian publisher, anarchist, futurist, and prolific author.

Leda Rafanelli was born on July 4, 1880, in Pistoia, Italy. After finishing elementary school, she became an apprentice at a local printing press, where she became acquainted with the publishing world, and anarchist/socialist ideas. In 1897, she published Pensieri, a book of poems, with her brother. Around the turn of the century, her experience living briefly in Alexandria, Egypt, cemented her interest in Eastern ideas and led to her studying the Arabic language and converting to Islam. Her commitments to anarchism and Islam were lifelong.

Rafanelli moved to Florence and married Luigi Polli, an anarchist bookseller whom she met in the Chamber of Labor, in May 1902. They founded Rafanelli Polli, a publisher of anti-military, anti-clerical, feminist pamphlets authored by Carlo Cafiero, Francesco Saverio Merlino, and Rafanelli herself. Rafanelli Polli also published the anarchist periodical La Blouse (1906–1910). She published her first novel (Sogno d'amore) in 1905. Her connection with Polli dissipated, though they remained friendly until his death in 1922. In the early 1900s, Rafanelli helped to co-found a committee to aid political victims from 1890s revolts and was targeted for distributing revolutionary and anti-military propaganda in Fusignano.

She entered a relationship with Giuseppe Monanni, an Arezzo printer who published Vir: novissima rivista di alte questioni sociali on anarcho-futurist ideas influenced by the individualism of Max Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche. Rafanelli and Monanni had a son, Elio Marsillo (1910–1944), whom they called Aini (Arabic for "my eyes").

Rafanelli had a friendship with Benito Mussolini prior to his rise as Italian dictator. Mussolini spoke at a 1913 commemoration of the Paris Commune as the director of Avanti!. Rafanelli wrote in praise of his oratory ability and stayed in touch via letters and visits for the next year, until his military interventionist stance became readily apparent. She later published their correspondence in Una donna e Mussolini (1946) and privately admitted her error in judging his personality

Since the 20's she worked as a fortune teller, a teacher of Arabic, and editorial work. Rafanelli continued to write for the anarchist periodical Umanità Nova. She moved to Genoa in the 1940s, where she died on September 13, 1971.

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leda Rafanelli is so dreamy. Rafanelli was an eclectic character, an individualist anarchist, Muslim, "feminilist," fantastic dresser and okay poet to boot! This biography is organized around the various aspects of her unique personality and beliefs, showcasing her ideologies alongside historical events (she was dating Mussolini before he was a fascist), but also interspersing her prose, poetry, and 'propaganda' of this fascinating compagni.

Here's a picture, just for good measure.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was unexpectedly delightful. I know little about Italian anarchists in history and knew nothing about Leda Rafanelli before AK sent this book along. Anyone who is interested in turn of the last century leftists, Italian history, obscure social justice fiction writers, or just radical bohemian women who tried to carve out their own life - despite expectations - will likely enjoy this.

[Marybeth Bonfiglio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fascinating translation - and commentary on such a little-known writer, propagandist, paradox of a woman. I wanted to read Italian woman writers who were observing and writing during the rise of fascism - Rafanelli really was a voice of her times. And Pakieser does a great job of putting all her works together in one book - potent examining and reflecting.

[Fortuna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent introductory text to the thought and works of Rafanelli, particularly regarding her views on colonialism, anarchism, and religion, though it remains a bit too introductory. Was hoping for something a bit deeper. Would still recommend to anyone interested in learning about her - the archival work done for the book clearly shows dedication and a passion for the subject.

[Lorenzo Else · Rating 5 out of 5]

While not the kind of book I’d typically pick up to read—though I do like biographies, I read the book because I know the author/editor.

One of the reasons the author/editor wrote the book was to have “…the conversations and discussions surrounding promotional activities to be as inspiring and enlightening as the process of researching and working out the book itself.” She can definitely chalk this one off the list. I’m an educated man but in the course of reading this book—I had to revisit innumerable topics that “I thought I knew” only to find that the Americanized version of this rich history as presented in the 60s—was severely deficient.

The reading was marvelous. I loved the way Leda’s story was intertwined within the commentary on the historical activities of the time. One of the things I really grew to appreciate was the editor’s precision with defining terms and activities in the historical context of the times—so to speak, used the terms and explanation of the late 1800s and early 1900s. It took me two to three times as long to read this book—as the intrigue spun within the book lead me on my own journeys to learn more about the person and her times. The journey to engage in a new examination of concepts like ‘propaganda’, the effect of literacy, the elevation of the concept of equality for women into her newly coined phrase of ‘feminility’, tons of historical references to the politics of Italy along with significant European events—and all turned out to be worthy jaunts.

I am sooooooo glad I read this book. Bravo Andrea!!!

Lorenzo Else

I Belong Only to Myself: The Life and Writings of Leda Rafanelli

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Belong Only to Myself does well in contextualizing Leda Rafanelli's writing within the political landscape of early 20th century Western Europe. I appreciate the author's honesty in her acknowledgement of inconsistencies in Leda's beliefs and how coming of age in colonial-era Italy inevitably coloured her views on the Middle East and North Africa as a convert to Islam. This book is by no means a comprehensive collection of Leda's writing (if such a thing could exist), but definitely furthered my understanding Italian leftism in the early 1900's. I would recommend it to anyone looking to better understand the role of narrative and fiction in political writing.