Books

First edition in English, first printing, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "For Ken & Lee Auchincloss, happy to find very good readers Italo Calvino Rome June 12th 1981", with Ken's bookplate to the front pastedown. Kenneth Auchincloss (1937-2003) was a journalist, author, and collector of fine printing and private press books. He and his wife Lee "played host to memorable gatherings of printers, artists, and wood-engravers from both sides of the Atlantic" (Independent). Auchincloss was widely travelled, journeying to "more continents while stricken with cancer than most people do in a lifetime of good health" (Gordon). He and Lee evidently met Calvino in Rome, one year after the author's move to Piazza Campo Marzio near the Pantheon, where he was occupied editing the work of Tommaso Landolfi for Rizzoli. John Randle, "Kenneth Auchincloss Obituary", Independent, 14 March 2003. Devin Gordon, "Remembering Ken Auchincloss", Newsweek, 3 April 2003. Octavo. Original yellow cloth backed red boards, titles to spine in black, ISBN and star to rear in black, red endpapers. With dust jacket. Head of spine and tips slightly bumped, a few trivial marks to lower edge, else bright and firm. A very good copy indeed, in the sharp jacket, spine panel sunned, top edges a little toned, nicks to head of spine and one tip, lower tips a little rubbed and creased.

Italo Calvino's novel, 'If on a winter's night a traveler', is a classic of postmodern literature, inviting readers into a labyrinth of stories that play with narrative form and the act of reading itself.