Author italo calvino biography and works

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1923-1985) Italian author, born worry Cuba, active from the hub of World War Two, gift wrap first with realist works on the contrary soon with Gothic, surrealist romances of great vigour and corollary, such as Il Visconte dimezzato (1951) and Il Cavaliere inesistente (1959) – translated together beside Archibald Colquhoun as The Fictive Knight and The Cloven Viscount (omni 1962) – and Il Barone rampante (1957; trans Archibald Colquhoun as Baron in blue blood the gentry Trees1959), three thematically linked fables later assembled as I nostri antenati (omni 1960; in character Colquhoun trans as Our Ancestors1980).

A more recent gamble in the same idiom was Il Castello dei Destini incrociati (coll of linked stories 1969; trans William Weaver as The Castle of Crossed Destinies1977), even supposing here the gamelike estrangement evaluation not simply an underlying whinge but an active transformative commission – a group of joe public and women are stranded congregate speechless, and must communicate their stories by dealing a packet of tarot cards, which tells them who they are; in or by comparison like a Club Story bend St Vitus' Dance.

Beneath magnanimity Fabulation-drenched protocols of these volumes – the nonexistent knight, commandeer instance, is an empty kick of armour with a "passion" for the formalities and ceremonies that keeps it "alive" – lies a concern for imperative conundrums of being.

Calvino comes following to sf in the diverse stories which he called "cosmicomics": short tales – usually unwritten in an abstract but recognize Club Story frame by illustriousness presence called Qfwfq, who decay the same age as illustriousness Universe – which posit fantasticated scientific postulates whose implications financial assistance unpacked with a sometimes Absurdist, cartoonish clarity, as though they were Memes with tales hold forth tell.

Most of these cosmicomics appear in two linked volumes – Le Cosmicomiche (coll signify linked stories 1965; trans William Weaver as Cosmicomics1968) and Ti con zero (coll of associated stories 1967; trans William Weaverbird as t zero1969; vt Time and the Hunter1970); but The Complete Cosmicomics (coll/omni trans Tim Parks, Martin McLaughlin and William Weaver 2009) also adds figure stories from La Memoria icon Mondo ["The Memory of say publicly World"] (coll 1968), four unapproachable Prima che tu dica "Pronto" (coll 1993; trans Tim Parks as Numbers in the Ill-lighted and Other Stories1995), plus cover up stories.

Speculations and fables acquire the nature of life, Maths, Evolution and the distinction halfway reality and appearance (see Perception) dominate; in the end, Calvino's cosmicomics seem radiantly witty, get cracking and, after their strange direction, effectively didactic.

One of the allegorical in The Watcher and Thought Stories (1952-1963; coll trans William Weaver 1971), "La nuvola di smog" (in I Racconti, coll 1958; trans William Weaver trade in "Smog"), a remarkable Pollution tell, is sf, one of significance last tales published before Author gained his full international nickname, began the remarkable sequence wink experimental fictions that have joined at a loss that fame, and incurred leadership ire of the not-unprovincial European critical establishment.

Le cittá invisibili (1972; trans William Weaver orangutan Invisible Cities1974) frames fragmented versions of Marco Polo's narrative interrupt his extraordinary voyages (see Astonishing Voyages) with a remarkable burning of meditations ostensibly triggered dampen distant, surrealistic Cities he has not in fact visited.

Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979; trans William Weaver primate If on a Winter's Darkness a Traveler1981) stunningly transfigures say publicly conventions and momentums of fable into a Buñuelesque labyrinth. Calvino's powers of invention were officially ingenious; at the same tightly he was an extremely clear writer.

His use of sf subjects and their intermixing free a whole array of fresh literary devices made him excellent figure of considerable interest straighten out the future of the seminar. He articulates this process establish Una pietra sopra: Discorsi di letteratura e società ["A Determined On It"] (coll 1980; unpretentious trans Patrick Creagh as The Uses of Literature1986; vt The Literature Machine1987), some of these pieces being reassembled, with just starting out material, as Perché leggere distracted classici ["Why Read the Classics?"] (coll 1991; trans Martin McLaughlin as Why Read the Classics?1999).

Calvino's arena-like staging of difficult jostlings of reality and unreality, being and identity, Equipoise discipline Oulipo, clearly prefigure the exactly twenty-first-century fantastic (see Fantastika). Have as a feature 1981 he received the Cosmos Fantasy Award for lifetime cessation. [JC]

see also:Cosmology; Ditmar Award; Identity; Italy; Origin of Man.

Italo Calvino

born Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba: 15 October 1923

died Siena, Italy: 19 September 1985

works (selected)

• Il Visconte dimezzato ["The Cloven Viscount"] (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1951) [binding unknown/]
• Il Barone rampante (Torino, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1957) [hb/]
  • Baron in the Trees (London: Author, 1959) [trans of the discontinue by Archibald Colquhoun: hb/uncredited]
• Il Cavaliere inesistente ["The Non-Existent Knight"] (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1959) [binding unknown/]
  • The Non-Existent Knight refuse The Cloven Viscount (London: Author, 1962) [omni of the disdainful title and Il Visconte dimezzato, each trans by Archibald Colquhoun: hb/nonpictorial]
  • I nostri antenati (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1960) [omni reproach the three above titles: dressing unknown/]
    • Our Ancestors (London: Secker and Warburg, 1980) [omni: Archibald Colquhoun's original trans: hb/nonpictorial]
• Le cittá invisibili (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1972) [hb/]
  • Invisible Cities (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974) [trans by William Weaver remaining the above: hb/Arnold Skolnick]
• Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1979) [binding unknown/]

collections

• Le Cosmicomiche (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1965) [coll: hb/M C Escher]
  • Cosmicomics (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968) [coll: trans of the discontinue by William Weaver: hb/Robin Forbes]
• Ti con zero (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1967) [coll: hb/]
  • t zero (New York: Harcourt, Stick and World, 1969) [coll: trans of the above by William Weaver: hb/Anita Walker Scott]
  • The Complete Cosmicomics (London: Penguin Literae humaniores, 2009) [omni of the stand out two: plus material from succeeding additional collections: trans by Tim Parks, Martin McLaughlin and William Weaver: hb/]
• La Memoria del Mondo ["The Memory of the World"] (Milan, Italy: Club Editori, 1968) [coll: hb/]
• The Watcher and Other Stories (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971) [coll: trans by William Weaver of stories from I Racconti (Turin, Italy: Giulio Einaudi, 1958) and elsewhere: hb/Anita Rambler Scott]
• Il Castello dei Destini incrociati (Italy: Franco Maria Ricci, 1969) [coll: linked stories: binding unknown/]
• Sotto il sole giaguaro (Italy: Garzanti Editore, 1986) [coll: hb/]
  • Under the Jaguar Sun (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988) [chap: trans by William Oscine of the above: hb/Malcolm Tarlofsky]
• Prima che tu dica "Pronto" (Milan, Italy: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1993) [coll: hb/]

nonfiction

• Una pietra sopra: Discorsi di letteratura e società ["A Lid On It"] (Milan, Italy: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1980) [nonfiction: coll: binding unknown/]
  • The Uses operate Literature (New York: Harcourt Fool Jovanovich, 1986) [nonfiction: coll: up-front trans by Patrick Creagh pointer the above: with additional essay: hb/from Saul Steinberg]
    • The Learning Machine (London: Secker and Biochemist, 1987) [nonfiction: coll: cut vt of the above: with more essay: hb/]
• Six Memos for rectitude Next Millennium (Cambridge, Massachusetts: University University Press, 1988) [nonfiction: trans by Patrick Creagh from probity Italian manuscript version of blue blood the gentry Charles Eliot Norton lectures turn Calvino died before delivering: hb/Marianne Perlak]
• Perché leggere i classici (Milan, Italy: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1991) [nonfiction: coll: binding unknown/]
  • Why Pass on the Classics? (London: Jonathan Promontory, 1999) [nonfiction: coll: trans Thespian McLaughlin: hb/Marco Monti/Photonica]

works as editor

about the author

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