Jane Soames

Jane Soames (1900–1988), also known as Jane Soames Nickerson, was a British-born author, translator, and historian. A graduate of Oxford University, she was employed by the Times as a correspondent in Paris and was an assistant to Hilaire Belloc, author of The Servile State.,^[1][2] Soames was married to Hoffman Nickerson (1888–1965), an Assemblyman in the 139th New York State Legislature. Soames also served as the Librarian for the Oyster Bay Historical Society in Oyster Bay, New York.

Title	Role	Publisher	Year of Publication
The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism (by Benito Mussolini)	Translator	London: Hogarth Press	1933
A Short History of North Africa	Author	New York, NY: Devin-Adair Co.	1961
Homage to Malthus	Author	Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press	1975
The Old Garden	Author	London: Poets’ and Painters’ Press	1975
Oyster Bay: A Sketch	Editor	Oyster Bay, NY: Oyster Bay Historical Society	1987

Translation of “La Dottrina del Fascismo”

Although written in 1927 by Mussolini, “La Dottrina del Fascismo” was first published in 1932 in the fourteenth volume of the first edition of the Enciclopedia Italiana as part of a large article about Fascism, written partly by philosopher Giovanni Gentile. The part of the article written by Mussolini was published for the first time in Italy as an essay in 1935 by Vallecchi. Soames translated the part of the article written by Mussolini in 1933. The translation, named “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism” was published as a 26-page booklet by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, London, in the “Day to Day Pamphlet” series. It was the first authorized English translation of Mussolini’s “La Dottrina.”.

References

1. Obituary, “Jane S. Nickerson, 87, Writer and Historian,” New York Times, January 13, 1988.
2. Jane Soames Nickerson, “Belloc’s Social Thought,” The University of Bookman, Vol. 21, No. 2, Winter 1981, book review of John P. McCarthy’s 1978 book Hilaire Belloc, Edwardian Radical.