Summary
Highlights
Italo Calvino was born in Cuba in 1923 to famous agronomist Mario Calvino but returned to Sanremo, Italy, in 1925. His parents instilled a secular upbringing and fostered his love for science. During the fascist regime, his father was forced to join the Fascist Party to secure a teaching position. Calvino himself initially studied agriculture in Turin but cultivated a strong passion for literature, cinema, and theater. In 1943, he joined the Resistance movement as a partisan, an experience that would later inspire his first novel, 'The Path to the Spiders' Nests'. After the war, he was also involved with the Italian Communist Party.
After completing his studies in literature, Calvino began working for Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, where he befriended intellectuals like Elio Vittorini and Cesare Pavese. In 1947, he graduated and published 'The Path to the Spiders' Nests', a neorealist novel that offers an unusual, almost fairy-tale-like perspective on the partisan struggle through the eyes of a child, Pin. Two years later, he released a collection of short stories titled 'Ultimo viene il corvo'. In 1956, disappointed by the Soviet invasion of Hungary and Stalin's crimes, Calvino distanced himself from the Italian Communist Party, though he continued to follow political themes.
In 1959, Calvino co-founded 'Il Menabò' with Elio Vittorini, a cultural weekly. In 1956, he published 'Italian Folktales', showcasing his interest in both the fantastic and scientific worlds. This duality is evident in his 'Heraldic Trilogy' ('Our Ancestors'), published in 1960. It includes 'The Cloven Viscount' (1952), 'The Baron in the Trees' (1957), and 'The Nonexistent Knight' (1959). 'The Cloven Viscount' uses a literal interpretation of a knight split in half to symbolize humanity's fragmented state during the Cold War. 'The Baron in the Trees', inspired by a true story, features a nobleman who lives his entire life in trees, representing intellectuals observing society from a unique perspective. 'The Nonexistent Knight' is a medieval tale about a warrior who is just an empty armor, exploring the quest for a full existence.
Beyond his fantastic tales, Calvino also wrote social critiques such as 'La speculazione edilizia', 'La nuvola di smog', 'Marcovaldo', and 'La giornata di uno scrutatore'. 'Marcovaldo', a collection of 20 short stories, follows an ingenuous and sensitive laborer facing daily life challenges. Calvino also explored scientific narratives in works like 'Cosmicomics' and 't zero', demonstrating his interest in science. In 1963, he married Cicita Esther Judith Singer in Havana. Around the 1970s, he moved to Paris and joined Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle), an experimental literary group focused on mathematical constraints and linguistic games in literature. Calvino translated Raymond Queneau's 'The Blue Flowers' during this period.
Calvino also had a great passion for the classics, retelling 'Orlando Furioso'. In his later years, he embraced 'combinatorial literature', heavily influenced by Oulipo. Key works from this period include 'Invisible Cities', 'The Castle of Crossed Destinies', and 'If on a winter's night a traveler'. 'Invisible Cities' presents Marco Polo's descriptions of imaginary cities to Kublai Khan, exploring the intricate nature of urban life. 'The Castle of Crossed Destinies' features characters who communicate solely through tarot cards, forming narratives on a grid. 'If on a winter's night a traveler' delves into the act of reading itself, portraying a reader constantly interrupted and embarking on new literary journeys. In the 1980s, Calvino lived in Italy and published 'Palomar', reflecting on the evolving role of the intellectual. He collaborated with various publications and eventually moved from Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore to Garzanti. Calvino died in Siena in 1985 while working on a series of lectures for Harvard University. These lectures were posthumously published in 1988 as 'Six Memos for the Next Millennium', offering insights into his poetic vision characterized by linearity, lightness, and simple yet profound writing.