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Leda Rafanelli | |
|---|---|
 Rafanelli, 1916 | |
| Born | (1880-07-04)July 4, 1880 Pistoia, Italy |
| Died | September 13, 1971(1971-09-13) (aged 91) |
| Occupation(s) | Publisher, author, fortune teller |
Leda Bruna Rafanelli (1880–1971) was an Italian publisher, anarchist, and prolific author.
Leda Bruna Rafanelli was born on July 4, 1880, inPistoia, 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 publishedPensieri, a book of poems, with her brother. Around the turn of the century, her experience living briefly inAlexandria, Egypt, cemented her interest in Eastern ideas and led to her studying theArabic language and converting toIslam. Her commitments to anarchism and Islam were lifelong.[1]
Rafanelli moved toFlorence 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 byCarlo Cafiero,Francesco Saverio Merlino, and Rafanelli herself. Rafanelli Polli also published the anarchist periodicalLa 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 inFusignano.[1]
She entered a relationship with Giuseppe Monanni, an Arezzo printer who publishedVir: novissima rivista di alte questioni sociali on anarcho-futurist ideas influenced by the individualism ofMax Stirner andFriedrich Nietzsche. They moved toMilan where they editedEttore Molinari andNella Giacomelli'sIl grido della folla andLa protesta umana. They would publish anarchist and individualist periodicals includingLa sciarpa nera,La questione sociale,La Rivolta, andLa Libertà. Rafanelli and Monanni founded a press in Milan, later known asCasa editrice sociale [it], that published multiple works by Rafanelli:Bozzetti sociali,Seme nuovo, andLa castità clericale. She dedicatedL'ultimo martire del libero pensiero ("The Last Martyr of Free Thought") toFrancisco Ferrer, a Catalan pedagogue whose execution had become acause célèbre andmovement. Rafanelli wroteVerso la Siberia: scene dalla rivoluzione russa ("Towards Siberia: Scenes from the Russian Revolution") during Italian protests againstNicholas II under a pseudonym, Bazaroff, taken fromIvan Turgenev'sFathers and Sons. Her press published her brother'sMarinai italiani a Tripoli in 1913. The press's image was enhanced by association with the illustratorCarlo Carrà, with whom Rafanelli had a brief relationship. The press published works byCharles Albert,Charles Darwin,Pietro Gori,Peter Kropotkin, andElisée Reclus. They paused publishing duringWorld War I. One of their major works was the republication of Nietzsche's complete works in Italian, published between 1926 and 1927.[1]
Rafanelli had a friendship withBenito Mussolini prior to his rise as Italian dictator. Mussolini spoke at a 1913 commemoration of theParis Commune as the director ofAvanti!. 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 inUna donna e Mussolini (1946) and privately admitted her error in judging his personality.[1]
In theinterwar period, she republishedBozzetti sociali and the short storiesDonne e femmine (1922). Rafanelli published two novels under pseudonyms:Incantamento (1921) as Sahra andL’oasi: romanzo arabo (1929) as Étienne Gamalier. Her relationship with Monanni dissipated in the 1930s, as did her militant activism. She worked as afortune teller, a teacher of Arabic, and editorial work. Rafanelli continued to write for the anarchist periodicalUmanità Nova. She moved toGenoa in the 1940s, where she died on September 13, 1971.[1]
Rafanelli and Monanni had a son, Elio Marsillo (1910–1944), whom they called Aini (Arabic for "my eyes").[1]
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