Oct

22

The Living Sword by Aldo Nadi is an autobiography of perhaps the greatest fencer of the century. His brother was Nedo Nadi. They were sons of a famous fencing teacher of the 19th century and fenced pretty much from birth winning their first adult tournaments at 11. The fencers at the school used to like to beat the kids in matches when they were teens and induce the father to give them a bout in return for their kidding. They won many Olympic golds in 1922 and then both turned professional.

The book describes the career of Aldo Nadi who spent his first 35 years in Europe and then left for America right before the second world war. After turning professional, he engaged in a series of Galas, like our heavy weight boxing matches, with anyone who would fence against him. He was so good that eventually no one would match up against him. His style was different from others, he did all his parries from central position. In the offensive movements he deliberately avoided each of his opponents weaknesses trying to score, instead in the lines best protected against and through their favorite most effective parries. Furthermore, he insisted on launching his attacks as far from the targets as feasible. He was 6' 2'' and weighed 130 pounds and was quick as a cat and always sick.

The book starts off with a real duel that he engaged in with a writer who questioned his courage, and ends with his proposal for a duel with guns with the president of the Italian Fencing Federation who didn't accord him as much respect as possible. And it is interesting to read about the formal nature of the duels of the 19th century and how different they are from real fencing matches. "You are not at ease, particularly when you see a couple of doctors in white shirts silently laying out a hideous assortment of surgical instruments upon a little table. They may be for me in a few seconds".

Nadis favorite activities were seduction, gambling and battles. He didn't train, drank heavily and was always sick. My father always said that such activities would inevitably lead a man to die broke and a degenerate. I was interested to see if that would hold true in Nadis case and indeed it did. He hated Los Angeles where American fencers and Hollywood did not care to put in the training and respect that fencing demanded. He went back to Monte Carlo at 60 to try to win a stake again, lost all his money, and had to come back to LA to teach again at a meager rate with the tail between his legs. His first marriage was strictly for money and his second "was a blunder". A niece wrote: "his mortal remains that I would have wished to accompany in the cemetery of Livorno beside his parents by his desire were cremated and his ashes dispersed from an airplane over the ocean. Italy, he rejected and generous America was not his country. He chose the wind for his tomb and I weep in anguish". His last sentence was "you have to know that I was a much better fencer than my brother and the only reason he tied me in our exhibition was that he begged me not to trounce him."

The book covers all of his ideas about what is good and bad in America and Europe during the major part of the 20th century. He hated doctors, railways, air conditioning, American education, and American women whom he felt were very cold compared to the hundreds of European women he seduced. He was a fan of Bertrand Russell and H.L Mencken and has many views on life that are similar to them. I found the book fascinating and well worth reading to find out how a person of tremendous natural ability and great training could mount to the summit of his field conquering the obstacles of a great activity that is not a great part of popular culture.


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