Italo Calvino

Italian journalist and writer (1923-1985) · Italy · Journalists · Died at 61

Italo Calvino is read about 2,634 times a day, in 69 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 22 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 397 days, one point a day.

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He wrote cities that don't exist and novels that fold in on themselves like origami. Calvino turned fiction into architecture - playful, precise, and somehow both weightless and immense.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Journalism Fiction Screenwriting Italy Europe

A life in dates

1985Died19 September 19851981“What makes love making and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space”In their words"If on a winter's night a traveller". Chapter 7. Translated from the Italian by William Weaver (1981).Read the whole statement

1979“In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for.”In their wordsEnglish translation: William Weaver (1981), HBJ,Read the whole statement

“If one wanted to depict the whole thing graphically, every episode, with its climax, would require a three-dimensional, or, rather, no model: every experience is unrepeatable.”In their wordsEnglish translation: William Weaver (1981), HBJ,Read the whole statement

1976Austrian State Prize for European LiteratureAward1972“With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear.”In their wordsPage 44.Read the whole statement

“Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me." Polo answers: "Without stones there is no arch.”In their wordsPage 82.Read the whole statement

1957Viareggio PrizeAward1925“Gore is a man without an unconscious.”In their wordsOn friend and author Gore Vidal, as quoted in "GORE VIDAL, 1925-2012 : Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer" in The New York Times (1 AugustRead the whole statement

1923Born15 October 1923

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Fondo librario Calvino

Fratelli Calvino

Homenaje a Italo Calvino

In their own words 10

Italo Calvino

10 statements, newest first

What makes love making and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space
1981, "If on a winter's night a traveller". Chapter 7. Translated from the Italian by William Weaver (1981)., Own words
In the shop window you have promptly identified the cover with the title you were looking for.
1979, English translation: William Weaver (1981), HBJ,, Own words
If one wanted to depict the whole thing graphically, every episode, with its climax, would require a three-dimensional, or, rather, no model: every experience is unrepeatable.
1979, English translation: William Weaver (1981), HBJ,, Own words

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Awards

Austrian State Prize for European Literature1976

Viareggio Prize1957

Commander of the Legion of Honour

Feltrinelli Prize

Ditmar Award

Family

Parents

Italo Calvino

Partners

Spouse Esther Judith Singer

Sibling Floriano Calvino

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About this person

Born in 1923, Italo Calvino built his reputation slowly, starting with the Our Ancestors trilogy between 1952 and 1959. By 1965 he'd shifted into stranger territory with Cosmicomics, short stories that bent time and space. Then came Invisible Cities in 1972 and If on a winter's night a traveler in 1979 - books that didn't just tell stories but dismantled the act of storytelling itself. By the time he died in September 1985, he was the most translated Italian writer of his generation, admired across Britain, Australia, and the United States for work that read like thought experiments dressed as fables.

Country

Italy

In common with Italo

Sophia LorenAlso in Boccaccio '70 (1962)

Catherine SpaakAlso in Sex Can Be Difficult (1962)

Vittorio De SicaAlso in Boccaccio '70 (1962)

Folco QuiliciAlso in L'Italia vista dal cielo: Liguria (1973)Pino ZacAlso in The Nonexistent Knight (1969)

Federico FelliniAlso in Boccaccio '70 (1962)

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