Author Description

An intimate portrait of Evola and his wartime activities that rebuts many of the Fascist pseudo-myths about him • Traces the Baron's activities in Italy, Germany, and Austria during World War II • Clarifies Evola's relations with Nazism and Fascism and reveals how he passionately rejected both ideologies because they were totalitarian • Draws on personal conversations with those who knew Evola, new documentation never before made public, and letters from the Hakl and Scaligero archives Baron Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola, known to the English-speaking world as Julius Evola (1898–1974), was an Italian philosopher, magician, painter, occultist, Orientalist, linguist, and champion mountain climber. Often considered a pillar of Neo-Fascist thought, Evola opposed Fascism and called himself a "radical traditionalist." In this exploration of Evola's inner and outer life from World War II into the early 1950s, Gianfranco de Turris, who knew Evola when he was alive and is the executor of his estate, offers a new portrait of Julius Evola and debunks many of the pseudo-myths about his activities during the war. Drawing on personal conversations with those who knew him and new documentation never before made public, including letters from the Hakl and Scaligero archives, the author traces Evola's activities--including his time on the run and living under assumed names--in Italy, Germany, and Austria from 1943 into the mid-1950s. He shares a thorough account of the Baron's sojourn at Hitler's headquarters in Rastenburg, his work for the German secret military services, and his passionate rejection of the racial theories that were the core of Nazi ideology. The author outlines Evola's critiques of Fascism and Nazism and also explores Evola's disapproval of the Italian Social Republic because it was destroying traditional values in favor of modernity. Detailing the Baron's occult and magical work during the war, de Turris shows that the only thing Evola took with him when he escap