Surely you have heard about one of the most published authors of the 80s, whose works have been translated into dozens of languages ​​of the world. It is about Italo Calvino, an Italian writer, journalist and publicist. Let's take a closer look at his personality and work.
Brief historical background
The full name of the writer given to him at birth is Italo Giovanni Calvino Mameli. A citizen of Italy, he was born on 10/15/1923 in Santiago de las Vegas (Havana) and died at the age of 61 (09/19/1985) in Siena (Italian region of Tuscany).
The works of prose writer, journalist and publicist Italo Calvino are written in Italian. The main direction of his work is postmodernism. A rather long period of I. Calvino's life was devoted to writing activity - 1947-1985. The debut work, which brought fame to the writer, was The Spider Nest Trail.
An Italo Calvino kindergarten has been opened in Moscow and there is a school of the Italian language bearing the same name. In order not to confuse the fans of the writer, we note that these organizations have nothing to do with him.
Writer Biography
Italo Calvino was born near Havana, in Cuba. Soon his family moved to Italy, and the writer's childhood passed in San Remo. His studies at the university in the agricultural specialty were interrupted by World War II - in 1943, the young man joined the partisan movement.
In 1945 he moved to Turin, where he began to print in various newspapers. The year before, Italo Calvino became a member of the Italian Communist Party. He also continues interrupted studies, but already at the philology department. In 1947 he graduated from the institute, begins to work in the newspaper L'UnitĂ .
From journalism, he smoothly moves to writing. The first neorealist story, based on the partisan’s own experience, “The Trail of Spider Nests,” Italo Calvino published with the help of friends - E. Vitorini and C. Pavese. In 1949, he was already releasing a collection in the same style - "The Raven Comes Last". Then the neorealistic book "Boys from the Shores of Poe" is published, which became the final one in this genre.
Since 1952, Italo Calvino devotes himself to science fiction - his trilogy “Our Ancestors” is published, which combines “The Non-Existing Knight”, “Baron on the Tree”, “Forked Viscount”. Generally speaking, it allegorically describes the image of a modern human writer.
And in 1956, Calvino unexpectedly publishes a collection of folklore "Italian Tales". The next year he leaves the Communist Party, indignant at the suppression of the uprising in Hungary by the troops of the Soviet Union. He explains his decision in the newspaper L'UnitĂ . In 1963 he published the children's collection "Markovaldo".
In 1964 flies to Cuba, the country of his birth. The journey was marked for him by a meeting with Che Guevara and acquaintance with Esther Judit Singer, who becomes the wife of Calvino. In the same year, the writer arrives in Paris. There he met K.-L. Strauss and R. Bart. During this period, sociology, semiotics, and cosmology entered his circle of interests. This was reflected in the writings as well - he publishes Cosmocomic Stories, and Castle of Crossed Fates.
Then his works began to go more into a fantastic and surrealistic niche. These include the famous book of Italo Calvino, "Invisible Cities" and "If One Day a Traveler on a Winter Night ...".
1975 for the writer was marked by the fact that he was recognized as an honorary member of the US Academy. He then receives the Austrian European Literature Prize. The latest work of Calvino was the collection "Palomar" (1983). In 1985, the writer was gone.
Awards
Creativity Italo Calvino noted a number of notable awards:
- S. Veyona in the field of Italian.
- Viareggio.
- Feltrinelli.
- Austrian State Prize in European Literature.
- Commander of the Legion of Honor.
The best books of the author
If we look at the rating of works compiled by readers, we can compile such a list (from more favorite to less liked books):
- "If one day a traveler on a winter night ..." is a postmodern prose work that includes 10 short stories.
- “Invisible Cities” - you will be surprised how this work reminds Boccaccio 's “Decameron”. Interestingly, the chapters of the book are built according to the laws of fortune telling on Tarot cards. This fundamental postmodern work will immerse the reader in the travels of Marco Polo in China.
- “Our ancestors” - the trilogy tells about life, its real and false values, the vicissitudes of fate.
- “The Castle of Crossed Fates” - the heroes of the work here will tell you about their fate, laying out Tarot cards.
- "Cosmocomic stories" - ironic theories of the origin of the universe, the origin of life on Earth.
Quotes by I. Calvino
In conclusion, we will present you the most striking statements of the writer:
- "Reading is always loneliness. Reading together, we read each alone."
- "As long as I know that someone is showing tricks for the addiction to them, that someone is reading for the love of reading, I’m sure that life goes on."
- "The hell of the living is what we live here and now. There are two ways that will free us from suffering because of it. The first is to accept hell, to become part of it. The second is to learn to recognize it so that you don’t end up in hellish paws." .
- "An unfulfilled future is a dry twig of the past."
That's all we wanted to tell you about Italo Calvino. We hope that you will still get acquainted with his unusual work, if today you first learned about him.