Al caffè: conversazioni dal vero [At the Café: Honest Conversations]. Paterson: Libreria Sociologica, [n.d.]
Title
Al caffè: conversazioni dal vero [At the Café: Honest Conversations]. Paterson: Libreria Sociologica, [n.d.]
Description
The Libreria Sociologica (Sociological Bookstore) in Paterson stocked one of the richest and most varied assortments of inexpensive books and pamphlets for anarchists and socialists in the U.S. These include social novels and dramas, as well as political tracts such as this one, in the form of a political conversation among five fictional characters.
The Libreria Sociologica was also a publisher, as this and at least a half-dozen other works in the Collection attest to, q.v. This work appears to have been popular, given that cover and title page both indicate that it is the seventh edition. The Libreria Sociologica published a series by anarchist thinkers that included the work of playwrights and poets, many of whom were in contact with Mexican and Spanish anarchists.
Probably the greatest of anarchists both in Italy and in the U.S., Enrico Malatesta believed that while anarchists could not be syndicalists, they could use syndicalist tactics to achieve their goals, and thus could have a role in the development of the Industrial Workers of the World (see works of Faggi, De Ciampis (Il Proletario), Ebert, Vincent St. John, Giuseppe Cannata, Meledandri, Buttis and others in the Collection).
The literary form of this work, as the title suggests, presents a series of conversations between a bourgeois and a student filled with anarchist ideas, and others with varied political opinions. Such conversations in narrative or occasionally dramatic form were a common way of educating and influencing the working men and women whom these writers sought to reach. This kind of presentation contrasted with the more theoretical and philosophical tracts of writers like Renzo Novatore (q.v.).
The Libreria Sociologica was also a publisher, as this and at least a half-dozen other works in the Collection attest to, q.v. This work appears to have been popular, given that cover and title page both indicate that it is the seventh edition. The Libreria Sociologica published a series by anarchist thinkers that included the work of playwrights and poets, many of whom were in contact with Mexican and Spanish anarchists.
Probably the greatest of anarchists both in Italy and in the U.S., Enrico Malatesta believed that while anarchists could not be syndicalists, they could use syndicalist tactics to achieve their goals, and thus could have a role in the development of the Industrial Workers of the World (see works of Faggi, De Ciampis (Il Proletario), Ebert, Vincent St. John, Giuseppe Cannata, Meledandri, Buttis and others in the Collection).
The literary form of this work, as the title suggests, presents a series of conversations between a bourgeois and a student filled with anarchist ideas, and others with varied political opinions. Such conversations in narrative or occasionally dramatic form were a common way of educating and influencing the working men and women whom these writers sought to reach. This kind of presentation contrasted with the more theoretical and philosophical tracts of writers like Renzo Novatore (q.v.).
Creator
Errico Malatesta
Publisher
Libreria Sociologica
Date
[n.d.]
Format
18 x 12cm; 59 p.
Language
Italian
Citation
Errico Malatesta, “Al caffè: conversazioni dal vero [At the Café: Honest Conversations]. Paterson: Libreria Sociologica, [n.d.],” Italian-Language American Imprints: The Periconi Collection, accessed April 19, 2024, https://italianamericanimprints.omeka.net/items/show/209.
Comments