The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

This is a fine hardcover First US Edition of “My Truth” by Edda Mussolini, the oldest child of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini.

Edda was born out of wedlock to Benito Mussolini and Rachele Guidi in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna in 1910 (her parents married in December 1915). After the family moved to Rome she met Galeazzo Ciano, Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari, son of Admiral Count Costanzo Ciano, a naval officer, WWI war hero and Fascist Minister of Communications. They were married on 24 April 1930 in a lavish ceremony in Rome. Edda Mussolini became Countess Edda Ciano. Her husband was appointed Italian Consul in Shanghai and their first son, Fabrizio Ciano was born there on 1 October 1931. The family moved back to Italy in 1932 where Ciano soon took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. They had two more children, daughter Raimonda (nicknamed Dindina) in December 1933 and son Marzio in December 1937.

In July 1943, when internal opposition against Benito Mussolini began to emerge in the Fascist Grand Council, Count Ciano voted against his father-in-law. For doing so he was later arrested, tried for treason and executed by firing squad in Verona on 11 January 1944, despite Edda's appeals to her father.

After her 41 year old husband’s death Edda escaped to Switzerland. She managed to smuggle out Ciano's wartime diaries and had them published after the war. After returning to Italy from Switzerland, Edda was held on the island of Lipari and on 20 December 1945 was sentenced to two years imprisonment for aiding Fascism.

After her release she lived in Rome. Her autobiography La mia vita was published in English as “My Truth” in 1975. She died in Rome on 9 April 1995.

Edda Mussolini Ciano told her interesting memories and fascinating anecdotes to French journalist Albert Zarca and “My Truth” covers her life in Roman society, her father and mother, her travels to China and elsewhere with her diplomat husband, impressions of her meetings with Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Dr. Joseph Goebbels and Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, her thoughts on Jews, her efforts to flee Italy when all seemed lost, the battle to save her husband and telling her children their father was dead.

This 6 x 8-½ inch, 256 page hardcover English language example of “My Truth” was published in 1977 by William Morrow and Company in New York, and printed in the USA. The book has about 20 pictures from Edda Ciano’s archive and comes with its original color dust jacket. A previous owner highlighted a few paragraphs, otherwise the 44 year old book in very good, little-used condition. No odor.