The Skin

New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1952. First American Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Near Fine/Very Good. 407 344344 Pp. Beige Cloth Lettered In Blue. First American Printing. Near Fine, No Marks. Dust Jacket Priced $3.50, Wear And Short Tears. Per Wikipoedia, Curzio Malaparte (1898 -1957), Born Kurt Erich Suckert, Was An Italian Writer, Filmmaker, War Correspondent And Diplomat. Malaparte Is Best Known Outside Italy Due To His Works Kaputt (1944) And La Pelle (1949). The Former Is A Semi-Fictionalised Account Of The Eastern Front During The Second World War And The Latter Is An Account Focusing On Morality In The Immediate Post-War Period Of Naples (It Was Placed On The Index Librorum Prohibitorum). During The 1920S, Malaparte Was One Of The Intellectuals Who Supported The Rise Of Italian Fascism And Benito Mussolini, Through The Magazine 900. Despite This, Malaparte Had A Complex Relationship With The National Fascist Party And Was Stripped Of Membership In 1933 For His Independent Streak. In Technique Du Coup D`Etat (1931), Malaparte Set Out A Study Of The Tactics Of Coup D'etat, Particularly Focusing On The Bolshevik Revolution And That Of Italian Fascism. Here He Stated That "The Problem Of The Conquest And Defense Of The State Is Not A Political One ... It Is A Technical Problem", A Way Of Knowing When And How To Occupy The Vital State Resources: The Telephone Exchanges, The Water Reserves And The Electricity Generators, Etc. He Taught A Hard Lesson That A Revolution Can Wear Itself Out In Strategy. He Emphasizes Leon Trotsky's Role In Organising The October Revolution Technically, While Lenin Was More Interested In Strategy. The Book Emphasizes That Joseph Stalin Thoroughly Comprehended The Technical Aspects Employed By Trotsky And So Was Able To Avert Left Opposition Coup Attempts Better Than Kerensky. For Malaparte, Mussolini's Revolutionary Outlook Was Very Much Born Of His Time As A Marxist. On The Topic Of Adolf Hitler, The Book Was Far More Doubtful And Critical. He Considered Hitler To Be A Reactionary. In A Book, First Published In French By Grasset, He Entitled Chapter Viii: A Woman: Hitler. This Led To Malaparte Being Stripped Of His National Fascist Party Membership And Sent To Internal Exile From 1933 To 1938 On The Island Of Lipari. He Was Freed On The Personal Intervention Of Mussolini's Son-In-Law And Heir Apparent Galeazzo Ciano. Mussolini's Regime Arrested Malaparte Again In 1938, 1939, 1941, And 1943, Imprisoning Him In Rome's Jail Regina Coeli. During That Time (1938-41) He Built A House With The Architect Adalberto Libera, Known As The Casa Malaparte, On Capo Massullo, On The Isle Of Capri. Kaputt, His 1944 Novelistic Account Of The War, Surreptitiously Written, Presents The Conflict From The Point Of View Of Those Doomed To Lose It. After The Second World War, Malaparte Became A Filmmaker And Moved Closer To Both Togliatti's Italian Communist Party And The Catholic Church (Though Once A Staunch Atheist), Reputedly Becoming A Member Of Both Before His Death.