text: who is gramsci?   well if you're speaking about antonio gramsci (january 22, 1891 – april 27, 1937), he was an italian writer, politician, leader and theorist of socialism, communism and anti-fascism. a brilliant student, gramsci won a prize that allowed him to study at the university of turin, where he read literature. he found turin at the time going through a process of industrialization, with the fiat and lancia factories recruiting workers from poorer regions. trade unions became established, and the first industrial social conflicts started to emerge. gramsci had a close involvement with these developments, frequenting socialist circles as well as associating with sardinian emigrants, which gave him continuity with his native culture.  his early difficult experiences in sardinia had already shaped his view of the world. this, together with his experience on the mainland, had a part in his decision to join the italian socialist party.  he became a notable journalist, even if his writings were mainly for political papers such as l'avanti (the socialist party official organ); nevertheless his brilliant prose and his intelligent observations soon resulted in greater fame. an articulate and prolific writer of political theory, gramsci produced a great deal of writing as editor of a number of socialist newspapers in italy. among the many, with palmiro togliatti he set up (in 1919) l'ordine nuovo (also the name of an unrelated 1960s fascist group), and contributed to la città futura.  on the evening of november 8, 1926, gramsci was arrested in rome and, in accordance with a series of "exceptional laws" enacted by the fascist-dominated italian legislature, committed to solitary confinement at the regina coeli prison. this began a ten-year odyssey, marked by almost constant physical and psychic pain as a result of a prison experience that culminated, on april 27, 1937, in his death from a cerebral hemorrhage. no doubt the stroke that killed him was but the final outcome of years and years of illnesses that were never properly treated in prison. yet as everyone familiar with the trajectory of gramsci's life knows, these prison years were also rich with intellectual achievement, as recorded in the notebooks he kept in his various cells that eventually saw the light after world war ii, and as recorded also in the extraordinary letters he wrote from prison to friends and especially to family members!