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Having gotten his political start as secretary of the labour party in for the city of Trento in Sud Tirol under the Austro-Hungarian empire with an editorial role with the partisan newspaper, L’Avvernire del Lavoratore (The Future of the Worker), Benito Mussolini was eventually deported back to Italy for several incendiary essays but not before having the opportunity to publish several pieces of his own academic and creative writing works around 1910—fancying himself to be quite the well rounded intellectual, with travelogues, literary theory and even a serialised romanzo storico, L’amante del Cardinale. Possibly ghost-written and loosely based on a historic papal affair and scandal from the seventeenth century, the lurid novel was a violent, anti-clerical invective and though tripled circulation for the publication, it was forgotten just as quickly as Mussolini trajectory barrelled towards fascism (compare to the water-colours aspirations of Adolf Hitler) but was compiled and reissued in 1928 in English translation as a sort of curiosity of purple prose—during the interbellum, many in UK and the US extending approval and tacit tolerance for Mussolini’s efforts to modernise and stabilise the country (dissolving and unifying the Papal States, the Pope was confined to the Vatican—see previously here and here) and its north African colonies despite his authoritarian tendencies, but some, particularly in academic circles, were less charitable and recognised the author for what he was. Dorothy Parker (previously) was especially biting with her criticism and saw right through the pretence. More from Print Magazine’s Daily Heller at the link up top.