Cesare Pavese’s correspondence, first published in two volumes in 1966 by Einaudi and edited by Lorenzo Mondo and Italo Calvino, consists of letters the author sent to friends, family members, acquaintances, colleagues, and collaborators between 1924 and 1950. It offers crucial insight into Pavese’s life and traces the stages of his personal and poetic apprenticeship. Within its pages, we hear the voice of a young high school student grappling with his first poetic attempts, and of a precocious Americanist seeking out books and lessons in slang; the debuting author of Lavorare Stanca, exiled in Brancaleone Calabro, and a respected editor at Einaudi; an original translator, a refined essayist, and, not least, an accomplished novelist.