A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939–1940

by Iris Origo, Katia Lysy (Afterword), Lucy Hughes-Hallett (Introduction)

In 1939 it was not a foregone conclusion that Mussolini would enter World War II on the side of Hitler. In this previously unpublished and only recently discovered diary, Iris Origo, author of the classic War in Val d’Orcia, provides a vivid account of how Mussolini decided on a course of action that would devastate his country and ultimately destroy his regime.

Though the British-born Origo lived with her Italian husband on an estate in a remote part of Tuscany, she was supremely well-connected and regularly in touch with intellectual and diplomatic circles in Rome, where her godfather, William Phillips, was the American ambassador. Her diary describes the Fascist government’s growing infatuation with Nazi Germany as Hitler’s armies marched triumphantly across Europe and the campaign of propaganda and intimidation that was mounted in support of its new aims. The book ends with the birth of Origo’s daughter and Origo’s decision to go to Rome to work with prisoners of war at the Italian Red Cross.

Together with War in Val d’Orcia, A Chill in the Air offers an indispensable record of Italy at war as well as a thrilling story of a formidable woman’s transformation from observer to actor at a great historical turning point.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Italy, World War II, War, Biography

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 26, 2017

About the author

Iris Origo was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second World War, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy’s fascist regime and Nazi occupied forces. She is the author of Images and Shadows; A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939–1940 (NYRB Classics); Leopardi: A Study in Solitude; and The Merchant of Prato, among others.

Reviews

[Paula Bardell-Hedley · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a complimentary copy of this book arrived in the mail from Pushkin Press, I immediately noticed that the introduction had been written by Lucy Hughes-Hallett, author of The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War - a brilliant, multi award winning biography of the notorious Italian poet and playwright. This certainly boded well in my mind for Iris Origo's diary, which covers the months leading up to Italy's entry into the Second World War.

English born Iris came from a privileged background and lived in Italy for most of her life, marrying the illegitimate son of Marchese Clemente Origo in 1924. Together they purchased a 7,000 acre estate in Tuscany and brought prosperity to a poverty stricken region. During the war she sheltered innumerable refugees and helped Allied prisoners escape from the fascist regime. She was appointed DBE in 1976.

Origo was already known to me as being one of the finest diarists of the twentieth century for her moving and compassionate journal detailing Italy's disastrous involvement in the same conflict, War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary 1943-1944, first published in 1947. Aware that her book had been a critical success, I had coincidentally just been reading extracts from it in Irene and Alan Taylor's The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists .

Published this month for the first time ever, A Chill in the Air details the extraordinary events to which she was witness during a most peculiar period in Italy’s history. She writes next to nothing about herself or her personal life but records the discussions she had with, among others, peasants, farm workers, friends, members of the aristocracy and her godfather, William Philips, the US Ambassador in Rome - and it is plain to see the incredulity of the ordinary people as Mussolini dragged them to war.

Unable to leave Italy for the duration of the war, Origo was a resident alien, but she was also an astute observer with an excellent understanding of Italian politics, and put her time to good use. However, while her more famous diary vividly records a rural farming community surviving the horrors of conflict, this is a very different document, which is likely to appeal to historians and those with an academic interest in the period rather than the general reader. It does, nevertheless, add to her fascinating oeuvre and is worth perusing in tandem with War in Val d'Orcia. (3.5 Stars)

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very compelling and eloquent account by Iris Origo which conveys both the tempo and temper of life that existed in Italy as she went from being a sometimes uneasy German ally and neutral to a full-fledged co-belligerent with Germany after June 10, 1940. The diary begins on March 27, 1939 and ends on July 23, 1940.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading simply for a sense of Italy on the eve and outbreak of the Second World War. The observations are piercing, though the diary is not personal in detail. There are some beautiful passages, but other entries are brief.


NYRB Book Club Selection

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too short to be truly great, but excellent nonetheless. Origo was a beautiful observer, and her insight was keen.

It was clearly a certain class of women (brought up literary, intelligent, highly educated and with a lot of very useful social connections) who wrote these kind of diaries: her connection with political figures like the American ambassador to Italy meant she had a lot of insider knowledge, which one can't hold against her. She wrote beautifully, and expressed herself very well.

The epilogue, written by her granddaughter, was fascinating, as those things usually are.

[Benedikt Lueger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ganz nett; zwei Dinge habe ich mitgenommen: (1) Auch ein Krieg lässt sich reich & privilegiert gut überstehen (2) wenn man die Dinge oft genug dreht findet man doch immer einen Kriegsgrund

"der römische Sommer ist in der halb leeren und nachts verdunkelten Stadt schöner, als ich es je erlebt habe"

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a diary kept by Iris Origo, an Anglo American married to the Italian Count Origo. It covers two years just before and at the beginning of Italy’s entry into World War II and not published until much later in her life. It doesn’t really have literary pretensions and is matter of fact but very well written. Most of the entries talk about Origo’s circle of plugged in friends and relatives who are all sifting through any information they can get as things are heating up around them. It is excellent at conveying the anxiety and apprehension of people that realize something big and bad is about to happen.

[James Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting story, more so to me because I know so little of it. We're familiar with Mussolini's rise to power and with Italy and Germany's alliance during the Spanish Civil War to help bring Francisco Franco to power. In the story of the runup to WWII, amidst the chest thumping and the wishful thinking Italy gets a smaller story on page 4, and below the fold at that. Italy was being aggressive--Abyssinia and Albania--yet wasn't considered a threat to European peace. The mood of the Italian populace was for peace. Germany and Germans were despised, Origo writes. Italy had no appetite for becoming involved in a large general war.

This is the concern of Iris Origo's diary, 27 March 39 to 23 July 40. She doesn't record personal events. In fact, it's only near the end of the book that the reader learns she's pregnant when she's whisked off to Rome in labor. Origo records the political and social events of the 2 crucial years at the beginning of the war. The question hanging over these entries written during a time of great anxiety is will Italy go to war allied with Germany? Origo seems to believe they won't. The Italians didn't want war and were confident their beloved Duce would keep them out of the one that was clearly brewing in Europe. But the arc of events her diary records shows that Mussolini was becoming more and more infatuated with the Nazis. Origo asks herself the question in her 9 June entry: "Is it possible to move a country to war, against its historical traditions, against the natural instincts and character of the majority of its inhabitants, and very possibly against its own interest? Apparently it is possible" The next day Italy declared war on Britain and France.

It's a sobering story. Origo was well-connected, had intellectual and diplomatic sources in Rome and was the goddaughter of William Phillips, the American ambassador. As she was her whole life, Origo during the period of this diary was closely in touch with those circles as well as the peasantry of the countryside. The way she records government explanations of policy, the use of the press to bolster public opinion, the heroic stature of Il Duce's personality by some segments of the population, remind me of today.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It is a Sunday afternoon. My window looks out over the Lungarno, which is crowded with soldiers. They look just like what they are: tough, awkward country boys dressed up in ill-fitting uniforms. One, a little older than the rest, has spent the whole afternoon lying on the strip of grass at the water's edge, playing with his baby daughter and now, as they come back (the child steadying herself by clutching one of his fingers) I see that he has made her a chain of dandelions."

[Chrystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting war diary from the Italian perspective.

[Jan Vranken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ik kende haar van The Merchant of Prato (ook vertaald in het Nederlands), een fascinerende ‘biografie’ gebaseerd op tienduizenden nagelaten brieven van deze handelaar uit de 14de eeuw. Daarom ingegaan op een lovende bespreking van dit pas onlangs gepubliceerde dagboek. Ik raad het iedereen aan. Omwille van de trefzekere beschrijving van de sfeer van de tijd. Zeker in deze tijd van toenemende onverdraagzaamheid en internationale spanningen. Mijn volgende boek wordt haar War in Val d’Orcia: hoe zij en tientallen mensen waarvoor ze zorg droeg, geprangd zaten tussen twee fronten op het einde van de oorlog. (Overigens bestaat haar landgoed - La Foce - nog altijd en is het te bezichtigen. Het stadje San Quirico d’Orcia is bijzonder aardig).

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I make my way gradually- very gradually- through Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, I've been realizing just how little I know about the Italian war experience, and came across this short volume of Iris Origo's diary from 1939-1940, which offers a view of the war from a place called Val d'Orcia in Tuscany, where Origo (1902-1988) lived with her husband. The caveat is that she wasn't Italian- she was born in Britain to a British mother and American father, and her godfather was William Phillips, the American ambassador to Italy during the war, so a reader might be excused for thinking that she wouldn't have much insight into everyday life in Italy.

But she wasn't some out-of-touch aristocrat. A keen observer of other people and of her adopted country, there's a thought-provoking observation here on just about every page, from the effects of years of propaganda even on people who know better, to the appeal of fascism to the working class and how it pits them against men in Spain "so like themselves", to the way that fascism creates suspicion and cuts us off from other human beings- from intimacy, trust, solidarity. But the best way to communicate Origo's excellence as a writer is probably simply to quote.

Here's just a taste of the penetrating way that she could describe people:

I agreed with his sentiments and yet felt uncomfortable- there was something wrong. Then, as he went on, I realized that everything he was deploring in the present world was the good side: the revolutionary, vital, idealistic element. Everything he wished to preserve (and admired...) was based on the rule of money- and the power money brings. Peace and war, the Jewish question, the social question, the situation in China, every question under the sun, was seen only in its relation to vested interests. So complete, so whole-hearted was his preoccupation that after an hour's conversation I began to wonder whether I had not been incredibly naive in believing there was any other governing motive in human life.

Mussolini sounds disturbingly familiar:

[Count Carlo Senni] emphasizes one trait which strikes everyone who has ever worked with Mussolini: his unbounded, almost undisguised, utterly cynical contempt for his own human instruments. Except for his brother Arnaldo (now dead) and perhaps, to a lesser extent, his daughter, there is no human being in the world whom he loves and trusts. He believes in the ability of his son-in-law; he does not trust him. A sentimentalist about "the people" en masse, he is completely cynical about all individuals, and measures them only by the use he can put them to...

And let's close with Origo's description of meeting the head of the Polish colony in Rome, a man she calls K.

For those in Poland nothing could be done. --"But the International Red Cross?"--He shook his head. He had heard only yesterday that the Mission which was about to start from Geneva had been refused admission. We all gasped. "But even in Spain..." He nodded. "You don't understand; the Germans prefer us to die." K's face hardened. "I was at the head of the little deputation of Poles who visited his Holiness last month", he said. "Perhaps you read in the papers what he said? He spoke coldly, prudently. That is not the way to speak to men who..." He broke off. "In any case...there was an ecclesiastic who talking to me, the other day, about the terrible effects of war upon the human soul. The worst, he said, is destruction of respect for the Will of God. No, I said, the worst is this: that if today, I had a chance of shooting down a German woman or child, I would do so without an instant's scruple or pity. That whole race- I no longer feel that they are human beings." There was such complete conviction, such immeasurable bitterness, in his voice that no one answered."

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty)]

I read War in Val D'Orcia over ten years ago, in 2011. This earlier diary was not published until 2017. I'm so glad it was finally made available, 67 years after it was written. The Afterword, written by her granddaughter, is also well written and illuminating.

[Trin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chilling account of a country's descent into fascism. Origo is especially good at documenting the propaganda that was swirling around Italy preceding its entrance into World War II.

Much too much of this is, uh, relatable. Like the Italian official who says of his countrymen, "Too many ideas, too much initiative, is dangerous for a people." Or Origo, waiting for the inevitable war to start: "It is all curiously unreal and also boring."

[Sean Carman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The American biographer Iris Origo was a child of wealth who grew up in the Villa Medici, an Italian renaissance mansion overlooking Florence. After three international debutante balls she married the Italian aristocrat Antonio Origo, and together they purchased and planned to restore a broken-down farm, La Foce, in southern Tuscany. But when their son Gianni died, in 1933, at age seven, their marriage faltered and Iris left to spend several years alone in London and New York. In the late 1930s she returned, to reunite with her estranged husband and recommit herself to La Foce. There, she witnessed the run-up to Italy's entry into World War II. In the spring of 1939, as Mussolini was preparing to bring Italy into the war, she started this journal, to make a record of the madness consuming her country, but also to clear her head so that she could, in her words, "keep as steady as possible."

A Chill in the Air: an Italian War Diary, 1939-1940 is notable for Origo's sharp observations of daily life in a country stumbling into war, as if in its sleep. At La Foce she describes the new recruits, waiting at every station with their fiber suitcases, "sitting on the edge of the platform or standing about aimlessly, with the dazed, patient look of their own cattle." In Rome she describes the squadristi strolling down the Corso arm in arm in groups of four or five.

The journal also reports Origo's insider accounts of Roosevelt's diplomatic efforts to keep Italy out of the war (William Phillips, the American ambassador in Rome, was Origo's godfather). Phillips, for example, tells Origo about delivering a message from Roosevelt to the King of Italy, who is ensconced in his fishing lodge in Turin. The ambassador loses his way, arriving late and in the rain to find the king in his driveway, "a very small, shabby man, in a brown overcoat . . . standing waiting, quite alone."

Origo's journal also describes the bewildering experience of life in a country that has fallen under the spell of a strongman's propaganda. She stares in disbelief at the lies printed daily in the papers, wondering how her adopted country can be so easily misled. Ordinary Italians, whom Origo presents as well-meaning, rather than fanatical, tell themselves Mussolini won't really lead them into war, that he'll find a way to make peace. It all seems eerily and depressingly familiar.

A Chill in the Air ends on July 23, 1940, with a note about the birth of Origo's son, and her decision to work for the Prisoner's Branch of the Italian Red Cross. "Until the spring of 1943," she writes, "[I] had no time for writing." When she again picked up her pen, she wrote a second diary, War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1942-1943. That diary recounts how she and Antonio sheltered Allied forces moving north through Italy, and later abandoned La Foce to lead a troop of 60 people, including four babies and twenty-eight children, to safety in nearby Montepulciano. It made Origo a literary sensation and is the work for which she is best remembered. A Chill in the Air is best read as an introduction to that later work.

The book ends with a powerful afterword by Origo's granddaughter Katia Sysy, who presents a beautiful and expertly drawn biography and remembrance that brings Iris Origo vividly to life, recounts her adventures, and celebrates her life at La Foce. Sysy's afterword is a brilliant piece of writing that will persuade you that someone really should make a movie of Origo's life. It is worth reading this elegant, slender account of pre-war Italy for the afterword alone.

[Leyland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dare I say the M-word? Masterclass.

These are the diary entries of Iris Origo in the years 1939 and 1940 as she lived in Italy, and as Italy moved toward war. She writes, of course, in good detail of the Nazi expansionism (the invasions of Poland, Netherland, Belgium, and Norway feature here, and the book ends shortly after the capitulation of France and the birth of her child).

These are common subjects of the what seems the millions and millions of available books on World War II. But far less often than that have I come across a book that gave a real impression of the mood of the Italian people. We hear from peasants, diplomats, Swedish masseuses, and everyone in between. Fair perspective, too, on France and (in particular) England during this time. No country is free of sin here, nor are any of the politician, diplomats, or the Vatican.

We follow the reactions of Italians as Italy invades Albania, which she contrasts with Italian colonial efforts Ethiopia, and are treated to the evolving opinions on Mussolini as he strengthens his alliance with Hitler. Many have faith in him, many don't, but she isn't afraid to put these opinions down on paper.

I am so happy I read this. I might come back with more since I have ordered the follow up to this, War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944

[Marco Leecock · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I liked her second war diary a lot, I felt that not every entry was created equal. That is war though, pure chaos. Sometimes people are planting crops, sometimes partisans blow up a railway, sometimes the Germans make themselves at home. Origo has a consistent and concise writing style but I don’t think that was always to the benefit of the content. I also understand that diary specifically was extremely dangerous contraband, so getting into specifics or emotions probably wasn’t worth the risk.

This diary on the other hand absolutely thrives in the conditions that made it. Origo is extremely smart, intuitive, observant. While it was difficult making something of the war half way down the peninsula through whispers and rumors, she is really flexing her muscles in this prelude. I found just about every entry to be deeply fascinating, as she cuts through propaganda, navigates bizarre and dangerous conversations, analyzes foreign news, or even sometimes falls prey to the unceasing wave of information controlled by the fascists. I found all of her reflections to be well thought out and intelligent, I want to read more of her thoughts on just about every aspect of Italian culture in the period. This diary was extremely enlightening, and sharply written. With out a doubt A Chill in the Air has to be one of the best first person resources for the pulse of Italy leading up to the war.

[Steve Middendorf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the NYRB Classics Series and a testament to why all of that Series should be on my list.

Iris Origo is most well known for her "little war diary" War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 This is a book that preceeds that one by 4 years. In 1939 it was not certain that Italy would enter the war with the Axis powers and here we see both the deliberations and preparations of the Italian population on the part of the government. This is a diary of a rich woman whose wealth and connections puts her fear and uncertainty into a class of people who will be disturbed by the war but who have the means to encounter it on their own terms; it gives us a unique insight into those close to the seats of power. This is 1939-40 in Fascist Italy. I've always had unanswered questions about Fascism. The outrages in Germany hang like a blanket over Fascisim, denying us a look at the political movement without the lens of the Holocaust. Italy is a setting for such a study and indeed Origo's diary entries answers many of my questions about how Fascism was different in Italy than in Germany. It portrays an 18 year old government well loved by the masses who "do not have to bother thinking too much." The elites, on the other hand do think a lot. But through Origo's eyes, although they think a lot, they seem hold back their critiques; yet always see the one raised eyebrow.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chill is the apprehension in the period leading up to Italy's entry into the second world war. Iris Origo had a privileged perspective of the situation as a foreigner, brought up purposely to be an outsider in any national conflict, yet married to an Italian and in regular contact with Italians from all walks of life as well as foreign diplomats. This diary of the two years 1939 and 1940 chronicles the build-up to war, the initial optimism that war would be avoided and then that it would soon be over, contrasted with the despair when young men were called up. As another foreigner, living in Italy today, I had not been aware of the reluctance of Italians to join the war on Hitler's side. Origo makes clear the role of propaganda in promoting a change in this view once Mussolini's decision had been taken. True to her position as an outsider she remarks: "To me one of the most alarming - as well as ugliest - symptoms of the moment is the growing tendency (on both sides) to deny any sincerity or good faith to their opponents...To do this is not only to make a psychological mistake; it is greatly to under-rate the strength of one's enemy."

Although the diary is a record of personal observations, these are focused on the build-up to war. We learn little about the author herself and it is only towards the end that we find out that she is in the final stages of pregnancy. Indeed, it is the birth of her daughter which leads to the interruption of the diary and Origo's resolve to work to relieve suffering.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways, I read Iris Origo's war diaries in the wrong order, as I have recently finished her War in the Val d'Orcia, her account from 1943 -44, whereas this earlier book covers 1939-40. Whereas the later book described the chaos and suffering of Italian civilians caught between the Allies and the Germans in 1943 and 1944, this one covers the Italian version of the Phoney War, when Italian politicians were deciding who to side with, and indeed, whether to join in at all. Mussolini decided to throw in the country's lot with Hitler, and became increasingly hostile towards Britain and America - Origo was Anglo-American. She looks at propaganda, fake news, the thoughts of ordinary Italians, reluctant to have their menfolk called up, and their very disparate view of Il Duce. A privileged woman, she has insights into the thoughts of the Great and the Good, and it's these that inform her book, which unlike her later work more or less ignores the couple's day to day life - even to a large extent her pregnancy. So it's just as involving as her later book, and gives an understanding that England was not, as we in the UK might imagine, always seen as the Great White Knight standing powerfully against the might of Hitler and the German army. An excellent introduction by Lucy Hughes-Hallet, and an equally informative afterword by Origo's granddaughter Katia Lypsy booked the diary.

[Christina Ek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible how this intelligent, privileged citizen of the world wrote cohesively and with deep affection for her adopted country, Italy, of the political and societal situation via private state letters & conversations and public sentiment from first-hand inquiries.
Fitting to read this in this 9th year of the Russo-Ukraine war.

[Indigo Pellegrini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Nina Hall recommended this last fall and I finally got around to reading it. This diary offers a window into Mussolini’s Italy on the brink of entering WWII. Often we think of the horrors of Mussolini’s fascism (there were many), so it was enlightening to read about fascism also being a movement championing Italys agriculture sector. Slowly I am building a better understanding of Italian history from the 1930’s-50’s.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely neat book. At it's core it's a diary, but it's much more than that. I learned plenty from this book and look forward to reading more from Iris Origo.

Thanks NYRB Classics.

[Kristin Boldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deceptively straightforward and clear eyed, yet stunning portrait of one person's experience in the lead up to Italy joining WW2.

[Monica Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.45. A wonderful published diary. It is short and obviously not written for publication, and that is the only reason for not giving it 5 stars. It is certainly relevant now in its discussion of how fascism ran Italy in this time leading up to the Italian entry into WWII.

[DonnaJo Pallini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting short read.

[Adrian]

Origo, an Anglo-American, married an Italian and wrote this diary while Italy and the world were on the precipice of war. It's all political, nothing much of a personal nature at all. But it's a taut and fascinating read. She reads papers, talks to people and above all listens. She is a sharp observer with a razor sharp intellect. It's as good as her later diary 'War in Val D'Orcia.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather spare account of the events leading up to Italy’s involvement in WWII, and the author’s reaction to these events. I was expecting more of a snapshot of daily life during that time period, but as it turns out, that was not the purpose the author had in mind for this diary. I understand her diary from the 1942-43 time period is more detailed and personal, so I will check that out. Her insight and engaging writing style here make me want to hear more from her!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps less interesting than War in the Val d'Orcia (written first, but covering a later period) this book covers the two years (1939 - 1940) in which Italy found itself propelled into a war which no one particularly wanted and in which the general populace was first somewhat pro western Europe, but through political machinations and propaganda became totally pro Nazi. In the earliest chapters there are frightfully similar echoes of our times.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 3 out of 5]

What do you expect from a diary? If you know the answer, you are bound to be disappointed. Diaries vary enormously. This one is a slight but politically astute diary. It tells the reader about the mood in the country in those early years. Anybody seeking the diarist's personal thoughts or what she did during the day is likely to sigh with frustration though.
I liked her approach, her observations. I only wish that she had written more.

[Rebecca Conard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Origo's journal entries take the pulse of Italians in Rome and Tuscany--Fascists and anti-Fascists alike--as Mussolini gradually took the country into war. Her observations are unflinching and sobering, especially her observations on the Fascists' manipulation of the news media, which constitute a cautionary tale for our own time. Must read with War in Val D'Orcia.