The Path to the Nest of Spiders Hardcover - 1957

Boston: Beacon Press, 1957. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine-. First Printing (no additional printings noted) of the author's first novel, translated into English by Archibald Colquhoun. 8vo: [6],145,[1]pp. Publisher's coarsely woven sea-green cloth, spine lettered in black, fore-edge untrimmed; illustrated dust jacket priced $3.50. Fine (hint of rubbing to spine ends); about Fine jacket (spine panel very lightly faded and rubbed). First published, in 1947, in Italian (Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno), narrating an episode of the Italian Resistance from a child's point of view. Calvino witnessed the Second World War up close. Mussolini's first military operation was to invade the French Riviera adjacent to San Remo, where the college-bound Italo lived with his parents on the Ligurian coast, home to Calvinos for generations. His university career was interrupted by the collapse of Fascism, in 1943, and the ensuing civil war—the "Resistance"—between the partisans and the Fascist Salò Republic, the puppet state created by German forces in the north of Italy. Calvino's engagement as a partisan marked him deeply, and he emerged from the experience as a committed Communist intellectual. Nest of Spioders received considerable critical acclaim and sold remarkably well for a work written by a virtually unknown writer. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).