Weaver, William
Entry updated 4 June 2025. Tagged: Author, Translator.
(1923-2013) US translator from the Italian, and author mostly of nonfiction studies of Italian composers and their works. He remains best known for his translations of the work of Italo Calvino, whose central canon he conveyed magisterially into English; he also produced versions of several of Umberto Eco's novels, including The Name of the Rose (1980 trans 1983) and Foucault's Pendulum (1988 trans 1989). Other Italian authors with entries in this encyclopedia whom he translated include Primo Levi, Luigi Pirandello (though no Weaver translations are cited in that entry) and Mario Soldati. [See Checklist below.] As a critic with deep knowledge of Italy and Italian literature, Weaver retained a perhaps surprising (but welcome) clarity and modesty in his rendering of sometimes difficult authors. [JC/DRL]
William Fense Weaver
born Washington, District of Columbia: 24 July 1923
died Rhinebeck, New York: 12 November 2013
works as translator (alphabetical by author)
- Italo Calvino. Cosmicomics (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1968) [coll: trans by Weaver of Le Cosmicomiche (coll 1965): hb/Robin Forbes]
- Italo Calvino. t zero (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1969) [coll: trans by Weaver of Ti con zero (coll 1967): hb/Anita Walker Scott]
- Time and the Hunter (London: Jonathan Cape, 1970) [vt of the above: hb/]
- Italo Calvino. The Watcher and Other Stories (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971) [coll: trans by Weaver of stories from I Racconti (coll 1958) and elsewhere: hb/Anita Walker Scott]
- Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974) [trans by Weaver of Le cittá invisibili (1972): hb/Arnold Skolnick]
- Italo Calvino. The Castle of Crossed Destinies (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977) [trans by Weaver of Il Castello dei Destini incrociati (coll 1969): hb/Robert Anthony]
- Italo Calvino. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981) [trans by Weaver of Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (1979): hb/Rubin Pfeffer]
- Italo Calvino. Under the Jaguar Sun (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988) [chap: trans by Weaver of Sotto il sole giaguaro (coll 1986): hb/Malcolm Tarlofsky]
- Umberto Eco. The Name of the Rose (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1983) [trans by Weaver of Il nome della rosa (1980): hb/Manuel Sanjulian]
- Umberto Eco. Travels in Hyperreality (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986) [nonfiction: coll: trans by Weaver from various sources: hb/Eric Baker]
- Umberto Eco. The Bomb and the General (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1989) [chap: trans by Weaver of La bomba e il generale (1966): illus/hb/Eugenio Carmi]
- Umberto Eco. Foucault's Pendulum (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1989) [trans by Weaver of Il pendolo di Foucault (1988): hb/Paul Bacon and Eric Baker]
- Umberto Eco. The Three Astronauts (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1989) [chap: trans by Weaver of I tre cosmonauti (1966 chap): hb/Eugenio Carmi]
- Umberto Eco. The Island of the Day Before (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995) [trans by Weaver of L'isola del giorno prima (1994): hb/Zuccaro Taddeo]
- Umberto Eco. Baudolino (New York: Harcourt Brace, 2002) [trans by Weaver of Baudolino (2000): hb/]
- Primo Levi. If Not Now, When? (New York: Summit Books, 1985) [trans by Weaver of Se non ora, quando? (1982): hb/]
- Primo Levi. The Monkey's Wrench (New York: Summit Books, 1986) [trans by Weaver of La chiave a stella (1978): hb/]
- The Wrench (London: Michael Joseph, 1987) [vt of the above: hb/]
- Primo Levi. The Drowned and the Saved (New York: Summit Books, 1988) [nonfiction: trans by Weaver of I sommersi e i salvati (1986): hb/Fred Marcellino]
- Primo Levi. Other People's Trades (New York: Summit Books, 1989) [nonfiction: coll: trans by Weaver of L'altrui mestiere (1985): hb/]
- Mario Soldati. The Emerald (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977) [trans by Weaver of Lo Smeraldo (1974): hb/]
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