Italo Calvino Book

An interesting look at the genesis of children's fantasy literature through the lives of 5 seminal authors. Examines the social and sexual repressions that shaped each writer and the world he created. I am interested to read other biographies about these men, to see what a biographer with an entirely different agenda makes of the same letters, etc. It seems clear to me which works the author read as a child, and which were read later - she is dismissive of newer, 'upstart' fantasy worlds like Narnia (citing the ham-handed use of Christian symbolism). However, many adults read the Narnia stories as secular tales and loved them on their own merits, unaware until much later of the blatant religious overtones. Additionally, she disregards fantasy worlds conceived originally for adults but adopted by older children (like Anne McCaffrey's Pern books)- though these concepts fall largely outside the scope of this book.

Overall, I found the book interesting, and agree with the biographer's suppositions. However, I felt that her preference for certain works was marked, as was her assumption that the five major works chronicled were nursery reading for all of us.