Amsterdam, 5 July 1895

My dearest,

[…] I did not want to talk about it, but this rebellious nostalgia for cherished friends from whom I am separated by so much uncertainty and, soon, by the widening vastness of the sea jumps from my pen. I did not wish to describe, my dear Edoardo, my deep feelings when I parted from you and the affectionate Razzia. At the moment of boarding, you represented the unforgettable Italian camaraderie to me. Because it is easy to consider yourself cosmopolitan by principle, but feeling has its own imperious laws […] It is not easy to leave the loyal comrades of the first struggles, those with whom I cheerfully shared the harshness of an Odyssey, without a storm of memories and sadness pouring into the heart. […] Send my best wishes and my friendship to the good and kind comrades Rossetti, to the good Razzia, to Baracchi, Pacini, Malatesta, Cini, Cambi, Borghesani, Bonometti, Petraroia, Protti and finally to all, all without exclusion, the good and true comrades: Italian, English and from other countries who keep some memory of me. […] Consider this letter addressed to you as written to everybody. Two more people to whom you will give my dearest regards: Kropotkin and Nettlau. Now I have truly finished.

With love,

Yours, Pietro Gori

Gori, ‘the knight of the Ideal’, wrote this letter shortly after his departure from London where he lived for several months following his expulsion from Switzerland. He worked as a sailor on a steamer and a number of fortuitous circumstances (a storm forced the captain to change course) allowed him to secretly disembark with his inseparable guitar in New York. From there he conducted a propaganda tour across the United States in which he delivered more than 400 lectures in a year; it was through these tours that radicals ‘could bring their message to even the most remote immigrant outposts.’ In summer 1896 he returned to London where he attended the International Socialist Workers and Trade Union Congress. Stricken by tuberculosis, after two months in hospital he managed to return to Italy where he continued his militancy.