Editing Italo Calvino (section)

===Turin and communism===
Calvino settled in [[Turin]] in 1945, after a long hesitation over living there or in [[Milan]].<ref>The decision was influenced by the firmly anti-Fascist stance of Turin during Mussolini's years in power. Cf. Calvino, 'Behind the Success' in ''Hermit in Paris'', 225.</ref> He often humorously belittled this choice, describing Turin as a "city that is serious but sad". Returning to university, he abandoned Agriculture for the Arts Faculty. A year later, he was initiated into the literary world by [[Elio Vittorini]], who published his short story {{lang|it|"Andato al comando"}} (1945; "Gone to Headquarters") in {{lang|it|[[Il Politecnico]]}}, a Turin-based weekly magazine associated with the university.<ref>{{lang|it|Il Politecnico}} was founded by Elio Vittorini, a novelist and the leading leftist intellectual of postwar Italy, who saw it as a means to restore Italy's diminished standing within the European cultural mainstream. Cf. Weiss, ''Understanding Italo Calvino'', 3.</ref> The horror of the war had not only provided the raw material for his literary ambitions but deepened his commitment to the Communist cause. Viewing civilian life as a continuation of the partisan struggle, he confirmed his membership in the [[Italian Communist Party]]. On reading [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s ''[[State and Revolution]]'', he plunged into post-war political life, associating himself chiefly with the worker's movement in Turin.<ref>Calvino, 'Political Autobiography of a Young Man', ''Hermit in Paris'', 143.</ref>

In 1947, he graduated with a Master's thesis on [[Joseph Conrad]], wrote short stories in his spare time, and landed a job in the publicity department at the Einaudi publishing house run by [[Giulio Einaudi]]. Although brief, his stint put him in regular contact with [[Cesare Pavese]], [[Natalia Ginzburg]], [[Norberto Bobbio]], and many other left-wing intellectuals and writers. He then left Einaudi to work as a journalist for the official Communist daily, {{lang|it|[[l'Unità]]}}, and the newborn Communist political magazine, {{lang|it|Rinascita}}. During this period, Pavese and poet [[Alfonso Gatto]] were Calvino's closest friends and mentors.<ref>Calvino, 'Behind the Success' in ''Hermit in Paris'', 224.</ref>

His first novel, {{lang|it|Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno}} (''[[The Path to the Nest of Spiders]]'') written with valuable editorial advice from Pavese, won the Premio Riccione on publication in 1947.<ref>Critic Martin McLaughlin points out that the novel failed to win the more prestigious Premio Mondadori. McLaughlin, xiii.</ref> With sales topping 5000 copies, a surprise success in postwar Italy, the novel inaugurated Calvino's [[Neorealism (art)|neorealist]] period. In a clairvoyant essay, Pavese praised the young writer as a "squirrel of the pen" who "climbed into the trees, more for fun than fear, to observe partisan life as a fable of the forest".<ref>Pavese's review first published in {{lang|it|l'Unità}} on 26 September 1947. Quoted in Weiss, ''Understanding Italo Calvino'', 39.</ref> In 1948, he interviewed one of his literary idols, [[Ernest Hemingway]], travelling with [[Natalia Ginzburg]] to his home in [[Stresa]].

{{lang|it|Ultimo viene il corvo}} (''[[The Crow Comes Last]]''), a collection of stories based on his wartime experiences, was published to acclaim in 1949. Despite the triumph, Calvino grew increasingly worried by his inability to compose a worthy second novel. He returned to Einaudi in 1950, responsible this time for the literary volumes. He eventually became a consulting editor, a position that allowed him to hone his writing talent, discover new writers, and develop into "a reader of texts".<ref>Weiss, ''Understanding Italo Calvino'', 4.</ref> In late 1951, presumably to advance in the Communist Party, he spent two months in the [[Soviet Union]] as a correspondent for {{lang|it|l'Unità}}. While in Moscow, he learned of his father's death on 25 October. The articles and correspondence he produced from this visit were published in 1952, winning the Saint-Vincent Prize for journalism.

Over a seven-year period, Calvino wrote three realist novels, ''The White Schooner'' (1947–1949), ''Youth in Turin'' (1950–1951), and ''The Queen's Necklace'' (1952–54), but all were deemed defective.<ref>Of the three manuscripts, only ''Youth in Turin'' was published in the review {{lang|it|Officina}} in 1957.</ref> Calvino's first efforts as a fictionist were marked with his experience in the Italian resistance during the Second World War, however, his acclamation as a writer of fantastic stories came in the 1950s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|pages=63}}</ref> During the eighteen months it took to complete {{lang|it|I giovani del Po}} (''Youth in Turin''), he made an important self-discovery: "I began doing what came most naturally to me – that is, following the memory of the things I had loved best since boyhood. Instead of making myself write the book I ''ought'' to write, the novel that was expected of me, I conjured up the book I myself would have liked to read, the sort by an unknown writer, from another age and another country, discovered in an attic."<ref>Calvino, 'Introduction by the author', ''Our Ancestors'', vii.</ref> The result was {{lang|it|Il visconte dimezzato}} (1952; ''[[The Cloven Viscount]]'') composed in 30 days between July and September 1951. The protagonist, a seventeenth-century viscount sundered in two by a cannonball, incarnated Calvino's growing political doubts and the divisive turbulence of the [[Cold War]].<ref>Calvino, 'Introduction by the author', ''Our Ancestors'', x.</ref> Skilfully interweaving elements of the [[fable]] and the [[fantasy]] genres, the [[allegorical]] novel launched him as a modern "[[fabulist]]".<ref>Calvino, 'Objective Biographical Notice', ''Hermit in Paris'', 163.</ref> In 1954, Giulio Einaudi commissioned his {{lang|it|Fiabe italiane}} (1956; ''[[Italian Folktales]]'') on the basis of the question, "Is there an Italian equivalent of the [[Brothers Grimm]]?"<ref>Calvino, 'Objective Biographical Notice', ''Hermit in Paris'', 164.</ref> For two years, Calvino collated tales found in 19th century collections across Italy then translated 200 of the finest from various dialects into Italian.  Key works he read at this time were [[Vladimir Propp]]'s ''Morphology of the Folktale'' and ''Historical Roots of Russian Fairy Tales'', stimulating his own ideas on the origin, shape and function of the story.<ref>Calvino, 'Introduction', ''Italian Folktales'', xxvii.</ref>

In 1952 Calvino wrote with [[Giorgio Bassani]] for {{lang|it|[[Botteghe Oscure]]}}, a magazine named after the popular name of the party's head offices in Rome. He also worked for {{lang|it|Il Contemporaneo}}, a [[Marxist]] weekly.

From 1955 to 1958 Calvino had an affair with Italian actress [[Elsa De Giorgi]], a married, older woman. Excerpts of the hundreds of love letters Calvino wrote to her were published in the {{lang|it|[[Corriere della Sera]]}} in 2004, causing some controversy.<ref>[http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/08/20/calvino_ed3_.php Italian novelist's love letters turn political]{{Dead link|date=June 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''International Herald Tribune'', 20 August 2004</ref>