Italo Calvino

Letters, 1941-1985

Nonfiction, History, Modern, 20th Century, Fiction & Literature, Essays & Letters, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Italo Calvino by Italo Calvino, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Italo Calvino ISBN: 9781400846245
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: June 17, 2013
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Italo Calvino
ISBN: 9781400846245
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: June 17, 2013
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

This is the first collection in English of the extraordinary letters of one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Italy's most important postwar novelist, Italo Calvino (1923-1985) achieved worldwide fame with such books as Cosmicomics, Invisible Cities, and If on a winter's night a traveler. But he was also an influential literary critic, an important literary editor, and a masterful letter writer whose correspondents included Umberto Eco, Primo Levi, Gore Vidal, Leonardo Sciascia, Natalia Ginzburg, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Luciano Berio. This book includes a generous selection of about 650 letters, written between World War II and the end of Calvino's life. Selected and introduced by Michael Wood, the letters are expertly rendered into English and annotated by well-known Calvino translator Martin McLaughlin.

The letters are filled with insights about Calvino's writing and that of others; about Italian, American, English, and French literature; about literary criticism and literature in general; and about culture and politics. The book also provides a kind of autobiography, documenting Calvino's Communism and his resignation from the party in 1957, his eye-opening trip to the United States in 1959-60, his move to Paris (where he lived from 1967 to 1980), and his trip to his birthplace in Cuba (where he met Che Guevara). Some lengthy letters amount almost to critical essays, while one is an appropriately brief defense of brevity, and there is an even shorter, reassuring note to his parents written on a scrap of paper while he and his brother were in hiding during the antifascist Resistance.

This is a book that will fascinate and delight Calvino fans and anyone else interested in a remarkable portrait of a great writer at work.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This is the first collection in English of the extraordinary letters of one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Italy's most important postwar novelist, Italo Calvino (1923-1985) achieved worldwide fame with such books as Cosmicomics, Invisible Cities, and If on a winter's night a traveler. But he was also an influential literary critic, an important literary editor, and a masterful letter writer whose correspondents included Umberto Eco, Primo Levi, Gore Vidal, Leonardo Sciascia, Natalia Ginzburg, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Luciano Berio. This book includes a generous selection of about 650 letters, written between World War II and the end of Calvino's life. Selected and introduced by Michael Wood, the letters are expertly rendered into English and annotated by well-known Calvino translator Martin McLaughlin.

The letters are filled with insights about Calvino's writing and that of others; about Italian, American, English, and French literature; about literary criticism and literature in general; and about culture and politics. The book also provides a kind of autobiography, documenting Calvino's Communism and his resignation from the party in 1957, his eye-opening trip to the United States in 1959-60, his move to Paris (where he lived from 1967 to 1980), and his trip to his birthplace in Cuba (where he met Che Guevara). Some lengthy letters amount almost to critical essays, while one is an appropriately brief defense of brevity, and there is an even shorter, reassuring note to his parents written on a scrap of paper while he and his brother were in hiding during the antifascist Resistance.

This is a book that will fascinate and delight Calvino fans and anyone else interested in a remarkable portrait of a great writer at work.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book The Invention of Enterprise by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book A Biologist's Guide to Mathematical Modeling in Ecology and Evolution by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book Conservative Internationalism by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book The Politics of Happiness by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book Great Cases in Constitutional Law by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book Tolerance among the Virtues by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book From Populations to Ecosystems by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book Odd Couples by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book The Fate of Rome by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book The Lives of Animals by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book Blessed Are the Organized by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book Making Volunteers by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book America in the World by Italo Calvino
Cover of the book The Neighbors Respond by Italo Calvino
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy