Italo Calvino was born on 15 October 1923 in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba. Two years later his parents settled in San Remo, on the Italian riviera. During World War II he joined the Italian Resistance and after the war, moved to Turin, where he studied Literature. He joined the Communist Party in 1944 and from 1946 started writing for the weekly "Il Politecnico" and the newspaper "L'Unita". That same year he also became part of the editorial staff at Einaudi. "Sentieri dei nidi di ragno" (1947) sold 6,000 copies and was followed by "Ultimo viene il corvo" in 1949. In the early 1950's he decisively turned to fantasy and allegory to produce the three fantastic tales which brought him international acclaim: "Il Visconte Dimezzato" in 1952, "Il Barone Rampante" in 1957, and "Il Cavaliere Inesistente" in 1959. In 1952 he published the first stories that would form "Marcovaldo", followed by "L'entrata in guerra" - about his memories of war in 1954, and "Fiabe italiane" in 1956, which was extremely well received. He married "Chichita" Singer in Havana on 19 February 1964 and moved to Paris in 1967, where he would stay, on and off, for the next fifteen years. "Le Citta Invisibili" was published in 1972 and won Calvino the prestigious Feltrinelli award. From 1974 he collaborated on the Italian newspaper "Il Corriere della Sera" and from 1979 to "La Repubblica". He received the Legion of Honour in 1981. On 19 September 1985, he died following a cerebral haemorrhage.