“We are going to Rome to scatter these words of liberty far and wide, words which for seven years have been forbidden like a crime. And with reason, for if they had been allowed, they would have shaken the Fascist tyranny to its foundations within a few hours.”

In 1931 the Italian poet Lauro de Bosis flew over Rome in a small plane in order to scatter anti-Fascist pamphlets from the sky. He did not survive the journey, but in Story of My Death he left behind a remarkable testament: a denunciation of Mussolini’s regime and a refusal, even in the face of death, to abandon the cause of liberty.

Eris Gems make available in the form of beautifully produced saddle-stitched booklets a series of outstanding short works of fiction and non-fiction.

Lauro de Bosis (1901-31) was an Italian poet and political activist. The author of the acclaimed play Icaro, he devoted himself in 1930 to campaigning against Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime.