The Theory of the Avant-garde

## PREFACE TO THE ITALIAN EDITION xv11 in installments in the year 1949 (issues 1, 2, and 4) of the review Inventario. The sixth chapter (on alienation) appeared later in 1950, in the same periodical. The mention of dates so distant now ought to be enough to resolve, by itself, any chance questions of precedence. In fact, I believe I am not deceiving myself when I maintain that my pro longed absence from my mother country and the first, and now so remote, appearance of this text in an organ of great merit but limited circulation have facilitated for some a too liberal use (without citing the source, needless to say) of many of the most personal ideas of this study. It is partially to prevent further abuses of this kind that I have finally decided to publish the present volume. The tardiness of the edition is owed, above all, to the exigencies of a career which now unfolds in another linguistic and cultural climate . Perhaps it would never have been published without the insistence of Pier Luigi Contessi, who has put to use the promptings of a friend and editor. Certainly it is thanks to him that this book now sees the light of day in a redaction representing a considerable revision, if not a radical rethinking, of the original version. What I want publicly to thank him for is having encouraged me to believe it worth the trouble to put together again this old work. Last of all, to declare other friendships, to recognize other debts of gratitude, I have chosen to dedicate this book to four European scholars, of diverse tongues, cultures, and stocks, with whom I make myself one, if certainly not in merit, at least in the destiny that led each one of us to leave behind the old continent and to work and teach in America.