California Italian Studies

This “Notes from the Field” contribution draws on print cultural records to call attention to African American translator Ben Johnson’s early translations of Italo Calvino’s short stories, including his English-language debut, “Last Comes the Raven” in Paris Review. Though information about Johnson’s career and time in Rome remains skeletal, these notes present readers with a working knowledge of his move to Rome following his wartime service in Italy, where he translated a great number of Italian modernist literary texts into English.