Davis, John, ed. Sacco & Vanzetti.

DAVIS, John, ed. Sacco & Vanzetti. (Rebel Lives.) Ocean Books. 119p. bibliog. c2004. 1-876175-85-0. $11.95. SA

Rebel Lives is a series that attempts to "make available the ideas and stories of imperfect revolutionary human beings to a new generation of readers and aspiring rebels." This little book may be a bit less drastic than its editors' purpose, but it is a powerful piece nonetheless. The entire book is composed of primary materials. In part one, the reader meets the two Italian immigrants through the letters they wrote while in jail from 1921 to the eve of their execution in 1927. Writing to their families, their prosecutors, or their supporters, they speak clearly of their beliefs, their imperfect English notwithstanding. In parts two and three are essays written while Sacco and Vanzetti were still alive and a cause celebre supported by such well-known authors as John Dos Passos, Eugene Debs. Anatole France, Upton Sinclair, and H. G. Wells. In part four are more modern essays on the case, including a piece by historian Howard Zinn written on the 50th anniversary of their death.

Wrote Vanzetti in 1924: "The more I live, the more I suffer, the more I learn, the more I am inclined to forgive, to be generous and that the violence as such does not resolve the problem of life." Patricia Moore, Brookline, MA