Hello
Gentle Reader,
Roberto
Calasso was warmly declared a literary institution of one. He was a writer,
editor, and publisher; though he is often warmly remembered as one of the most
important Italian publishers of modern times, as well as an engrossing and
approachable public intellectual. As a writer, Roberto Calasso’s worked
concerned the relationship between myth and modern consciousness. A theme he
often explored within his works. The Guardian quoted Calasso in their
recent obituary: “A life in which the gods are not invited is not worth living.
It will be quieter, but there won’t be any stories.” And so, Roberto Calasso
worked to invite the gods back from their ancient realms. Roberto Calasso’s
life was not quiet, nor small, nor quaint, or minuscule. Calasso’s life was engaged
and engulfed with the pyrotechnic intellect, which was generously dispersed.
His life was consumed with literature as a pursuit of passion, which was not
just a pleasure for the reader to enjoy but provide scholarly support in
understanding the anthropological perspective and understanding of human
society from primitive state to the modern conscious creature that it is today.
A life of intellect was in the pedigree of Roberto Calasso. His father was a
legal scholar, his mother a scholar and translator of German literature. His
grandfather was a professor of philosophy in Florence; while an uncle was a
partisan fighter during the Second World War and became a politician and
Minister of Education. The path of public intellectual pursuits was already
formed for Roberto Calasso, who pursued the passion without complaint and with
great interest, which was infectious in its propagation to others. After
completing his doctoral dissertation on Thomas Browne’s theories of hieroglyphs,
Calasso went to work for the prestigious Adelphi Edizioni, where he would
become the chairman of the organization at the end of the 20th Century.
Throughout his career as both writer and publisher, Roberto Calasso maintained
a strong devotion to literature as one of the noblest and highest pursuits of
study. His literary oeuvre was maintained strict devotion to studying classical
myths as a metaphorical understanding of our primitive germination of consciousness
as it leads into our modern thought and its continued evolution; other critical
analysis included an astute study of the works of Franz Kafka, among other writers
such as Charles Baudelaire and Vladimir Nabokov. Where other writers, publishers,
intellectuals, and professors lamented on the state of literature or critical
thinking in today’s world, Calasso never uttered a complaint to the decline,
but worked tirelessly to find a new place to build an altar to the legendary greats
of literature and inspire the future generations of great writers to come. His
publishing style was as eclectic as his life, showing equal interest into all
books and literature, not fixated on just classical narratives, but also books
that held an important message or contemplated the conundrums of the modern
age. Roberto Calasso was a champion of writers both established and still
unknown. A successful connoisseur both of literary, intellect, cultural and aesthetic
significance, Roberto Calasso will sadly be missed not only in Italy, but also
the literary world, which surely quaked and shivered at the news of his
passing.
Rest
in Peace, Roberto Calasso.
Thank-you
For Reading Gentle Reader
Take
Care
And
As Always
Stay
Well Read
M.
Mary
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