One Writer, Many Writings. The War Diary and Letters of Guerrino Botteri

The article examines the entrée en guerre of Italian-speaking soldiers of Austria-Hungary through the multiple war writings of Guerrino Botteri, an infantry soldier from Trentino ser- ving in the 2nd Landesschützen Regiment (Bozen). These include his war diary; his let- ters to his wife Anselma Ongari; his letters to his family of origin; and his letters to his brother-in-law Valerio Ongari. Each writing ser- ved its own purposes. For Guerrino, writing to his wife Anselma meant communicating his love, reinforcing his and his wife’s faith, and reassuring her that his life was not in danger. The main purpose of Guerrino’s letters to his mother and sisters was to reassure them as well, while that of his letters to his brother-in-law Valerio was to share his war experience. Sharing his war experience was also one of the two main purposes of Guerrino’s daily memoirs, along with explaining his war expe- rience to himself.