Cosmicomics
Cosmicomics (Italian: Le cosmicomiche) is a collection of twelve short stories by Italo Calvino first published in Italian in 1965 and in English in 1968. The stories were originally published between 1964 and 1965 in the Italian periodicals Il Caffè and Il Giorno. Each story takes a scientific theory (though sometimes a falsehood by today's understanding), and builds an imaginative story around it. An always-extant being called Qfwfq explicitly narrates all of the stories save two. Every story is a memory of an event in the history of the universe.
First edition (Einaudi, 1965) | |
| Author | Italo Calvino |
|---|---|
| Original title | Le Cosmicomiche |
| Translator | William Weaver |
| Cover artist | M. C. Escher (depicted) A. Simi (first paper) |
| Country | Italy (first) |
| Language | Italian (first) |
| Genre | Science fiction short stories |
| Publisher | Giulio Einaudi (Italian) Harcourt Brace (US) |
Publication date | 1965 |
Published in English | 1968 (US, UK) |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback (1970)) |
| Pages | 188 (first) 153 (US, UK) 185 (first paper) |
| ISBN | 0-15-622600-6 (1976 US) |
| OCLC | 2521577 |
| 853/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ3.C13956 Co8 PQ4809.A45 |
All of the stories in Cosmicomics, together with more of Qfwfq stories from t zero and other sources, are now available in a single volume collection, The Complete Cosmicomics (Penguin UK, 2009).
The first U.S. edition, translated by William Weaver, won the National Book Award in the Translation category.