Bruno Filippi (1900-1919) was nineteen years old when he died in Milan carrying an explosive device into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. In the years before his death, he emerged as one of the most singular voices within the anarchist individualist milieu surrounding journals such as Iconoclasta!, Cronaca Libertaria, Il Libertario, and L'Avvenire Anarchico.
A World in Flames consists of 14 writings never before available in English.
Written between prison, war, social upheaval, and the final months of his life, these texts move between anti-militarism, egoism, revolt, philosophical reflection, visionary prose, satire, correspondence, and poetic destruction. At times lucid and incisive, at others feverish, ecstatic, tender, or merciless, they reveal an uncompromising anarchist whose revolt refused confinement within politics alone, moving as easily through philosophy, dream, hallucination, invective, poetry, and attack as through critique itself.
Part of what makes this project unusual is that the chain of transmission remains partly alive. Some of these writings survived through personal collections, friendships, old militants, family-held documents, small presses, private correspondence, and decades of informal preservation carried forward by individuals rather than institutions. Others remained scattered across newspapers, memorial editions, and later recoveries for more than a century.
The translations collected here were originally produced by Wolfi Landstreicher from previously untranslated Italian texts. For this edition, they have been newly organized, source-traced, editorially reviewed, and introduced by Fíona Vivienne.
More than historical documents, these writings preserve the voice of an anarchist whose work continually crossed the boundaries between political critique, prose-poetry, dream, hallucination, invective, and confession. Included are prison letters, letters to his family, polemical essays, visionary prose, correspondences to friends, a posthumous remembrance by Carlo Molaschi, and reactions to Bruno's death printed across headlines. Together they remain among the most intense and unusual texts to emerge from the anarchist currents of early twentieth-century Italy.
These writings emerge from a distant historical moment, yet often feel disconcertingly close at hand. We are incredibly happy to finally place them into the world.
!
This 5×7 softcover, perfect bound, with cream-linen interior gem hits the post on June 20th.
Bruno Filippi (1900-1919) was nineteen years old when he died in Milan carrying an explosive device into the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. In the years before his death, he emerged as one of the most singular voices within the anarchist individualist milieu surrounding journals such as Iconoclasta!, Cronaca Libertaria, Il Libertario, and L'Avvenire Anarchico.
A World in Flames consists of 14 writings never before available in English.
Written between prison, war, social upheaval, and the final months of his life, these texts move between anti-militarism, egoism, revolt, philosophical reflection, visionary prose, satire, correspondence, and poetic destruction. At times lucid and incisive, at others feverish, ecstatic, tender, or merciless, they reveal an uncompromising anarchist whose revolt refused confinement within politics alone, moving as easily through philosophy, dream, hallucination, invective, poetry, and attack as through critique itself.
Part of what makes this project unusual is that the chain of transmission remains partly alive. Some of these writings survived through personal collections, friendships, old militants, family-held documents, small presses, private correspondence, and decades of informal preservation carried forward by individuals rather than institutions. Others remained scattered across newspapers, memorial editions, and later recoveries for more than a century.
The translations collected here were originally produced by Wolfi Landstreicher from previously untranslated Italian texts. For this edition, they have been newly organized, source-traced, editorially reviewed, and introduced by Fíona Vivienne.
More than historical documents, these writings preserve the voice of an anarchist whose work continually crossed the boundaries between political critique, prose-poetry, dream, hallucination, invective, and confession. Included are prison letters, letters to his family, polemical essays, visionary prose, correspondences to friends, a posthumous remembrance by Carlo Molaschi, and reactions to Bruno's death printed across headlines. Together they remain among the most intense and unusual texts to emerge from the anarchist currents of early twentieth-century Italy.
These writings emerge from a distant historical moment, yet often feel disconcertingly close at hand. We are incredibly happy to finally place them into the world.
!
This 5×7 softcover, perfect bound, with cream-linen interior gem hits the post on June 20th.
