Jane Soames
Jane Soames (1900-1988), also known as Jane Soames Nickerson, was a British-born author, translator, and historian. A graduate of Oxford University, she was employed by the Times as a correspondent in Paris and was an assistant to Hillaire Belloc, author of The Servile State.,[1][2] Soames was married to Hoffman Nickerson (1888-1965), an Assemblyman in the 139th New York State Legislature. Soames also served as the Librarian for the Oyster Bay Historical Society in Oyster Bay, New York.
| Title | Role | Publisher | Year of Publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism (by Benito Mussolini) | Translator | London: Hogarth Press | 1933 |
| A Short History of North Africa | Author | New York, NY: Devin-Adair Co. | 1961 |
| Homage to Malthus | Author | Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press | 1975 |
| The Old Garden | Author | London: Poets’ and Painters’ Press | 1975 |
| Oyster Bay: A Sketch | Editor | Oyster Bay, NY: Oyster Bay Historical Society | 1987 |
Translation of “La Dottrina del Fascism”
Although written in 1927 by Mussolini with the help of Giovanni Gentile, “La Dottrina del Fascism” was first published in 1932 in the fourteenth volume of the first edition of the Enciclopedia Italiana. Soames translated “La Dottrina” in 1933. “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism” was published as a 26-page booklet by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, London, in the “Day to Day Pamphlet” series. It was the first authorized English translation of Mussolini’s “La Dottrina.”
Several writers of the era relied upon Soames’s translation, including Herbert Hoover in Challenge to Liberty (1934).[3]
Controversy over Soames’s Translation of “La Dottrina del Fascism”
Soames’s translation of “La Dottrina”[4] is not without controversy. For instance, she translated a sentence from Italian that had Mussolini writing, “it may rather be expected that this will be a century of authority, a century of the Left, a century of Fascism,” suggesting that Mussolini thought of himself and his movement as belonging on the Left side of the political spectrum.[5] Some have argued that Soames might have mistranslated the Italian word for "right", contending that the National Fascist Party officials or Mussolini himself failed to discover the mistake during proofreading, although there is no record that Mussolini or his administration considered the translation to be in error or demanded a change in future reprints of Soames’ translation.
References
- ^ Obituary, “Jane S. Nickerson, 87, Writer and Historian,” New York Times, January 13, 1988.
- ^ Jane Soames Nickerson, “Belloc’s Social Thought,” The University of Bookman, Vol. 21, No. 2, Winter 1981, book review of John P. McCarthy’s 1978 book Hillaire Belloc, Edwardian Radical.
- ^ Herbert Hoover, The Challenge to Liberty, New York/London, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934, p. 66.
- ^ http://www.pauladaunt.com/books/Banned%20books%20and%20conspiracy%20theories/The%20Doctrine%20of%20Fascism%20-%20by%20Benito%20Mussolini%20%28Printed%201933%29.pdf
- ^ Benito Mussolini, “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism,” first authorized translation into English by Jane Soames, published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, London W.C. in 1933, 26 page booklet, quote on p. 20 (Day to Day Pamphlets No. 18). Other sources include: Fascism: An Anthology, Nathanael Greene, ed., N. York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1968, pp. 41, 43–44, and Benito Mussolini, My Autobiography with “The Political and Social Doctrines of Fascism,” published by Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, p. 236, 2006. Although written in 1927 by Mussolini, with the help of Giovanni Gentile, it was first published in 1932 in Italian. Jane Soames’ translation was also published in The Living Age, November, 1933, New York City, entitled “The Doctrine of Fascism.”