The Lampadophorous: Paolo Milano, Nicola Chiaromonte and the politics of friendship

Compared to the scholarly attention dedicated to mid-20th-century Germanic or French transatlantic intellectual migration and its impact on thought and culture in the USA, the influence of Italian exiles and refugees has been relatively neglected. In the political context, only a few Italian exiles with public or institutional roles in the USA have been studied (e.g. Ascoli, Salvemini, Borgese), while the contributions of others remain overlooked. This article addresses two such neglected figures: Paolo Milano and Nicola Chiaromonte. It highlights how the politics of friendship they brought to 1940s New York, premised in utopian socialism, constituted a vehicle for transatlantic exchange. Though Milano and Chiaromonte did not have strong institutional affiliations during this period, their connections to US literary and radical circles helped circulate an account of Italy and an interpretation of Italian antifascist resistance strongly informed by their vision of friendship.