The Prison Notebooks (Italian: Quaderni del carcere [kwaˈdɛrni del ˈkartʃere]) are a series of essays written by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci was imprisoned by the Italian Fascist regime in 1926. The notebooks were written between 1929 and 1935, when Gramsci was released from prison to a medical center on grounds of ill-health. His friend, Piero Sraffa, had supplied the writing implements and notebooks. Gramsci died in April 1937.
Gramsci wrote more than 30 notebooks and 3,000 pages of history and analysis during his imprisonment. The original Prison Notebooks are kept at the Fondazione Gramsci in Rome. These notebooks were initially smuggled out of prison, catalogued by Gramsci's sister-in-law Tatiana Schucht, and sent to Moscow for safekeeping. They were returned to Italy after World War II and have since been preserved by the Gramsci Foundation.
