To a large extent, those who helped in the research and writing of Il Duce’s Other Woman did the same for the editing of this book. The footnotes in My Fault reveal how much of the information in Phil Cannistraro’s and my biography of Margherita Sarfatti contributed to the commentary and annotation for this book. Thus I again express the gratitude Phil and I did to those acknowledged in our account of Sarfatti’s life.
Phil himself contributed much of the new research that enhances My Fault. Before his untimely death in 2005, he and I planned a revised edition of Il Duce’s Other Woman. From 1993, each of us collected and shared new information on Sarfatti, as well as noted errors in our biography. Much of what Phil found appears in this book. For that I express the deep appreciation to Phil which I can never do in person.
Among those who helped create the framework in which I placed Sarfatti’s memoir, four persons deserve special mention. These are Dr. Paola Pettinella, head of the archivio del ’900 of the Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (MART) and her able assistants Duccio Dogheria, Carlo Prosser and Federico Zanoner. All were of immense help to me while I worked in the fondo Sarfatti at the MART archive in Rovereto in June 2011. Perhaps even more important was their patient and unstinting cooperation via e-mail in the nearly two years that followed. I am forever in their debt.
Others who contributed to this book are Chloe Fevre who carried out invaluable research at the French army archives in Vincennes in the Deuxième Bureau Fonds Russes files on Sarfatti and Ernest Forichon; Robert Dujarric, my friend of many years, for his ever-generous willingness to find me publications, sources and assistance of every sort; Mimmo Franzinelli for lending books, sharing ideas and providing insights that only he could; John Gooch for his knowledge of the Fascist era, publications, personal contacts and countless hours of informed conversation; Elizabeth MacIntosh, with whom I have shared a fascination with Sarfatti over more than twenty years and discussed My Fault on numerous occasions; Ciro Paoletti for his willingness to share many sources, as well as obtain documents from and patiently engage the bureaucracy at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Rome; Virginia Yans for her deeply informed explication of the differences between biography and history, as well as the use and misuse of memoirs; Martin Clark for the deep understanding he acquired from his superb biography of Mussolini and his generous imparting of the same during several days in Edinburgh; Gaspare Piccagnoni for facts about his grandfather otherwise unobtainable; Gianni Scipione Rossi for his invaluable books on Cesira Carocci and Alice De Fonseca Pallotelli and for facts he gathered in their creation; Susanna Massari for her gracious hospitality and enthusiastic willingness to explore for information in Milan.
For decades, Rosa and Lucio Ceva have provided me friendship and relevant ideas, not to mention room and board, whenever I have visited Milan. That city had such prominent influence on Sarfatti and Mussolini that even observations during street walks provided a unique education about their lives. Thanks to their hospitality, Rosa and Lucio gave me many opportunities to gain such knowledge. Even more valuable, having two highly informed Milanese friends in the Cevas has brought me even more knowledge of their city, as well as a wealth of anecdotes about Sarfatti and Mussolini in Milan. When, in addition, I think of Rosa and Lucio’s willingness over the years to search out contacts, documents, publications and other sources on which this book is based, I realize how much I am in their debt. Words cannot fully express my gratitude to them.
I am deeply appreciative of the help provided by the manager of Enigma Books, Jay Wynshaw. His indefatigable labor transformed the manuscript of My Fault into a book. I feel deep chagrin when I consider how many mistakes and oversights he patiently noted, queried, or corrected over the course of several months. I profess even more profound thanks to him for the handsome layout of this volume in all its regards.
My editor, publisher and friend, Robert Miller, deserves most of the credit for the physical existence of this book. So much of its genesis is due to his enthusiasm, negotiations, research, interpersonal relations, historical knowledge, ideas and encouragement that My Fault would never have appeared without his years-long efforts on its behalf. In every sense save the biological, he is the father of this book.
To my wife, Dr. Laura Kay Fleming, I am forever indebted for her loving willingness to repeat her labor of twenty years ago on the Sarfatti biography. Once again, she read every word, considered every punctuation mark, corrected the grammar and immeasurably improved the tone of my writing. She also designed the bibliography, expanded its amplitude and ensured its accuracy. Perhaps more important, she sustained and supported the editor over the course of a decade. What pleasure this book provides is largely due to her efforts. Finally, special thanks to Mac Knox and John Gooch (again) for sharing recently declassified 1939 communications between the British Secret Service and the Foreign Office.
What errors, infelicities, misjudgments, and lapses there may be in the editing, commentary, and annotation of this book are mine. Its virtues are largely due to the persons mentioned above.
To that brilliant, imaginative, talented, erudite, seductive, vain, stubborn, cunning, and dangerous woman, Margherita Grassini Sarfatti, belongs the credit for and value of My Fault. It presents her account of the creation of a Frankenstein monster. Let the reader decide how much blame Sarfatti deserves for the tragedy that resulted; how much forgiveness she earned through her repentance. Certainly, in the end, she discovered the truth of the words of her beloved Dante:
Non è il mondan romore altro ch’un fiato
di vento, ch’or vien quinci e or vien quindi,
e muta nome perché muta lato.
Purgatorio, XI, 102-4