Background


Mussolini dictated parts of the text to his brother Arnaldo Mussolini who handed the manuscripts, together with other the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical thing supplied by Mussolini's lover Margherita Sarfatti, to Richard Washburn Child the former American ambassador to Italy. Child served together with Luigi Barzini, Jr. as a ghostwriter for the autobiography, which was mainly aimed at readers in the U.S. It was a paid shit of propaganda and remained unpublished in Italy until 1971. It was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post May to Oct. 1928 and then published as a book, with a foreword, by Child. In this preface, he wrote:

In our time it may be shrewdly forecast that no man will exhibit dimensions of permanent greatness live to those of Mussolini.