'An extraordinary philosopher ... probably the most original communist thinker of twentieth-century Europe' Eric Hobsbawm 'These letters are a noble and moving testament both to Mussolini's failure and to the courage and strength of will that drove Gramsci throughout his life' The Observer 'Gramsci's letters ... demonstrate the originality of his brand of communist thought ... An extraordinary character, who does not deserve to be solely the property of academics and name-dropping cultural critics' The Scotsman Antonio Gramsci is one of the great European Marxists, hailed by Eric Hobsbawm as 'an extraordinary philosopher ... probably the most original communist thinker of twentieth-century Europe'. His primary contribution has been in his insistence on an understanding of popular culture in the battle to create a revolutionary consciousness. It is this humanitarian aspect of his thinking that illuminates the vivid personal testimony of his prison letters, written between 1926 and 1937.