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Calvino 1923 - 1985 (62)

In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision.


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Invisible cities



Italo Calvino was one of the most important Italian writers of the 20th century. Born in Cuba on October 15, 1923, he was young when they moved to the Italian Riviera. In 1943 he joined the Italian resistance and became a member of the Communist Party. In 1947 he graduated from the University of Turin and began collaborating with left-wing newspapers and magazines. After the Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956), he left the Communist Party. In 1957 he visited USA where he met his future wife. They lived for many years in USA before they returned to Italy.

In 1947 he published his first novel and since then he wrote dozens of novels, essays and children's stories, with the best known: "Difficult love affairs", "Castle of the crossed destinies" (1969), "The invisible cities" (1972), "Palomar" (1983), "Why read the classics" (essay). Calvino became an honorary member of the American Academy in 1975 and the following year won the Prize for European Literature. He visited the Soviet Union, Japan, Mexico, as well as several American cities, giving lectures. He died on September 19, 1985 in a hospital in Siena.