Italo Calvino
(1923–1985)

The trajectory of Italo Calvino's life and writing career was an unusual one. Born in Cuba, the son of two botanists, the young Calvino moved to Italy where he spent his childhood. His studies at the University of Turin were interrupted during World War II by orders to join the Italian Army. Rather than join the army, which was then allied with Nazi Germany, Calvino escaped to the countryside to join the Italian Resistance. He fought against Italian and German fascists for two years until the Axis powers were defeated and democracy was restored to Italy.

When Calvino returned to his studies at the University of Turin, he decided to pursue writing and literature instead of resuming his studies in science. He wrote magazine and journal articles and then penned his first novel, The Path to the Nest of Spiders (1947), based on his wartime experiences.

This novel was the beginning of a writing career filled with interesting twists. His subsequent books each involved unusual story lines. In The Cloven Viscount (1952), a soldier hit by a cannonball returns to his village in two halves, with each half taking a conflicting role in the town. Another book details the adventures of a knight who has no body, just an empty suit of armor. Calvino's unusual plots are paired with characters that are often innocent and youthful, lending the stories a fable-like quality.

Fables had a huge influence on Calvino, and the collection of Italian fables he gathered and published in 1956 is considered a classic. Inspiration came from other unusual sources as well, such as comic strips. These sources inspired his experiments with science fiction writing in the late 1960s. To each genre of writing he attempted, Calvino brought a lively sense of humor, a vivid imagination, and a passion for exploring complex philosophical questions about human nature.

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