La Parola del Popolo: rivista di politica e cultura degli italiani di tutte le Americhe [The Voice of the People: magazine and culture of the Italians in all the Americas]. Chicago, 1958-1982.

La Parola del Popolo: rivista di politica e cultura degli italiani di tutte le Americhe [The Voice of the People: magazine and culture of the Italians in all the Americas]. Chicago, 1958-1982.

The Collection includes issues from the very late years of this publication, whichhad begun in 1908 under the name of La Parola dei Socialisti, and took the name it has in these issues in 1920. Durante has an excellent discussion of the magazine in its various incarnations. One of the longest-lived of the socialist publications, La Parola went through many name changes to evade postal authorities and for other reasons. 

The earliest issue in the Collection is a large-format, 336-page commemorative edition of 1958 for the 50th anniversary of the newspaper. Its pages contain many illustrations by the leading leftist illustrator, Fort Velona (see, in the Collection, Sotto il segno del littorio and Memorie di vita di tempeste sociali), and large black and white photographs of leading anti-fascist scholar Gaetano Salvemini and of Giacomo Battistoni (see holograph letter of Carlo Tresca to Battistoni in the Collection), as well as of the objects of the “ommagi” [tributes] to several influential radicals.

In that commemorative edition, note the large number of prominent names in the "Sommario" of articles, including Domenico Saudino, Filippo Turrati, Giovannitti and Mario De Ciampis, q.v. all in the Collection except Turati.

Fort Velona’s summary in the 50th anniversary commemorative edition of the history of this important organ of Italian socialists shows the parallel growth of the Italian socialist movement in the U.S. and the newspaper that was its banner: after a period of name changes from La Parola dei Socialisti, its name in 1908 and at least until 1917, in a vain attempt to evade postal authorities’ efforts to prevent sending subscribers copies of the newspaper of the fledgling Federazione Socialista Italiana (La Fiaccola and L’Avanti! were two others), and following the ending of World War I, when postal suppression relaxed, the former La Parola dei Socialisti (see La morale di Arlecchino) was reborn as La Parola del Popolo in 1920.

The Collection also has a 352-page 1976 bientennal edition of La Parola (Sett.-Ott.), with opening tributes from then U.S. President Gerald Ford - one wonders if he knew the background and content of the magazine! - and from the then Italian President, Giovanni Leone. There are mostly articles in English, by Joseph Tusiani, Rudolph Vecoli, Gaetano Cipolla, Angelo Pellegrini, Margherita Marchione and Laura Fermi, among others. There are articles in Italian, but many fewer, by Pasquale de Ciampis, Alberto Cupelli, Margherita Marchione, and Max Salvadori, among others -  but none of the important names reflected in articles in the 1958-59 50th Anniversary issue of the magazine noted above.  

From that time, when Egidio Clemente took over the renamed newspaper, publication continued uninterrupted until its final issue in 1982. The last issue now in the Collection is the May-June 1982 issue (no. 160) in that last year of publication.

Years after his editorship of La Parola, Clemente (b. Trieste, 1899; d. Chicago, ?) established his own imprint, which published Giovannitti’s Italian poems in 1957 (Quando canta il gallo, q.v.) and again, posthumously, in 1962, in a commemorative edition of “Collected Poems” of the English-language poems of the perfectly bi-lingual Giovannitti.

Professor Laura E. Ruberto generously made a recent gift of all the issues here from No. 125 (1974) through 1960 (1982), including the massive (376 pp.) "Bicentennial [edition] - The Italian Contribution," discussed above.

The issues here include:

La Parola del Popolo, Vol. IX, No. 37, Dicembre-Genn. 1958-1959 (336 pp.)
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXII, No. 112 - Luglio-Agosto 1972
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXII, No. 114 - Nov.-Dic. 1972
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIII, No. 118 - Luglio-Agosto 1973
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIV, No. 120 - Nov. Dic. 1973
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIV, No. 125 - Sett.-Ott. 1974
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIV, No. 126 - Nov.-Dic. 1974
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXV, No. 127 - Genn.-Febb. 1975
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXV, No. 128 - Marzo-Aprile 1975
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXV, No. 129 - Maggio-Giugno 1975
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXV, No. 130 - Sett.-Ott. 1975
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXV, No. 131 - Nov.-Dec. 1975
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVI, No. 132 - Genn.-Febb. 1976
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVI, No. 133 - Marzo-Apr. 1976
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVI, No. 134 - Sett.-Ott. 1976 - Bicentennial Ed. (352 pp.)
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVI, No. 135 - Nov.-Dec. 1976
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVII, No. 136 - Genn.-Febb. 1977
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVIII, No. 137 - Marzo-Apr. 1977
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVIII, No. 138 - Magg.-Giugno 1977
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVIII, No. 140 - Sett.-Ott. 1977
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXVIII, No. 141 - Nov.-Dec. 1977
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 142 - Genn.-Febb. 1978
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 143 - Marzo-Apr. 1978
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 144 - Magg.-Giugno 1978
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 145 - Lugl.-Aug. 1978 
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 146 - Sett.-Ott. 1978
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 148 - Magg.-Giugno 1979
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 149 - Lugl.-Aug. 1979
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 150 - Nov.-Dic. 1979
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 151 - Genn.-Febb. 1980
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 152 - Marzo-Apr. 1980
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXIX, No. 153 - Sett.-Ott. 1980
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXX, No. 154 - Nov.-Dic. 1980
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXXI, No. 155 - Genn.-Feb. 1981
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXX [sic], No. 156 - Marzo-Apr. 1981
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXXI, No. 157 - Magg.-Giugno 1981
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXXI, No. 158 - Nov.-Dic. 1981
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXXII, No. 159 - Genn.-Feb. 1982
La Parola del Popolo, Vol. XXXII, No. 160 - Magg.-Giugno 1982

Professor Laura E. Ruberto (all but a few issues)

28.5x21.5cm

29.5x20.5cm

Italian