Never before published in English, these essayistic writings enlarge our understanding of one of the twentieth centrury's most beloved authors.

In evocations of Italo Calvino's tumultuous teenage years--his life during Mussolini's rule, at the time of the liberation, and during the Cold War--we learn the story of the author's generation as it confronted moral, civil, and artistic dilemmas. In writings from the extended periods during which Calvino lived alone in Paris and New York, we witness his struggle to find "the right distance between being involved and being detached." In "American Diary" he recounts his peregrinations throughout the United States in 1959 and 1960: from New York to Texas, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Savannah, and Charleston. He describes his bafflement with heretofore unimaginable technology, his fascination with the Beats, his horror at the squalor of the suburbs, the inspiration he derived from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words and actions, his impressions of myriad aspects of American culture.

Filled with the author's characteristic insight, intelligence, and brio, Hermit in Paris will take its place alongside Italo Calvino's seminal works.