Chapter 13 Manuscript Instructions (Esther Calvino, Taiwan translation)

Description of the manuscript Esther Calvino Regarding the title of the book: I have thought carefully that the title chosen by Italo Calvino, Memo for the Next Peace and Prosperity, does not in fact correspond to the manuscript I found, but I think it is necessary to keep the original title.Calvino considered titles such as "Some Literary Values", "Selections of Literary Values", "Six Literary Legacies", and then discarded them in favor of "Memorandum"—all titles with "To The next round of peace and prosperity" and other words. Italo Calvino began to conceive as soon as he accepted the proposal of the Norton Lectures (the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) in 1984.Faced with the vast range of choices from which he could choose, he could not help but worry, because he knew the importance of restraint, until one day he made a plan to organize the content of the speech; then he spent most of his time preparing.Since January 1, 1985, he has practically done nothing else, the only haunting concern being preparations.He announced to me one day that he already had ideas and material for eight lectures.I learned that the title of the planned eighth talk is "On the Beginning and End (of a Novel)".But I haven't been able to find the manuscript yet.

In September 1985, when my husband was about to leave for the United States and Harvard University, he had already written these five speeches.These are, of course, the original speeches that Calvino was going to deliver—the English translation was being done by Patrick Creagh at the time—and, of course, Calvino is bound to revise before the book is published by Harvard University Press. .However, I don't think there will be any major changes; the difference between the early drafts I've read and the final one is in terms of structure, not content.Italo Calvino wanted to call the sixth speech "Consistency", and the planner started to write it when he arrived in Cambridge. I found the other five, written in the original Italian language, in an orderly manner, and placed them in his writing On the table, it is ready for the suitcase.

I would like to thank Patrick Klee for his tireless translation work; Kathleen Hume of the University of Pennsylvania for helping me organize and publish the manuscript; and Luca Ma of the University of Konstanz. Rigodi has a deep understanding of Calvino's works and thoughts.