1. Contents

Other People's Trades ({{lang-it|L'altrui mestiere}}) are fifty-one essays written by Primo Levi between 1969 and 1985.

These are, according to Levi, "the fruit of my roaming about as a curious dilettante for more than a decade." Mainly written for his regular column in La Stampa, the Turin daily newspaper, these essays range from book reviews, autobiographical snippets, homespun philosophy and scientific curiosities. Immensely readable, educational and informative, these essays demonstrate Levi's skill as a supreme writer.

They were originally published by Einaudi in 1985. They were translated in English by Raymond Rosenthal and published by Summit Books in 1989.

Contents

• My House
• Butterflies
• News from the Sky
• Beetles
• A Bottle of Sunshine
• The Moon and Us
• Inventing an Animal
• The Leap of the Flea
• Frogs on the Moon
• Love's Erector Set
• The Invisible World
• A Long Duel
• Grandfather's Store
• Why Does One Write?
• The Skull and the Orchid
• The Best Goods
• The Scribe
• 'The Most Joyful Creature in the World'
• The Mark of the Chemist
• Eclipse of the Prophet
• Stable/Unstable
• The Language of Chemists (I)
• The Language of Chemists (II)
• The Book of Strange Data
• Writing a Novel
• François Rabelais
• The Force of Amber
• The Irritable Chess Players
• Renzo's Fist
• The Fear of Spiders
• Novels Dictated by Crickets
• Domum Servavit
• On Obscure Writing
• The Children's International
• Going Back to School
• Ex-Chemist
• Signs on Stone
• Against Pain
• Thirty Hours on Castoro Sei
• The Hidden Player
• Ritual and Laughter
• The Need and Fear
• To a Young Reader

• 1749
• 1749 in Canada
• 1749 in literature
• 1749 in music
• 1749 in science
• 174 AD
• 174 BC
• 174 BCE
• 174 Phaedra
• 174th Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)
• 174th Street (New York Subway)
• 175
• 1750
• 1750 BC
• 1750 BCE
• 1750 in Canada
• 1750 in literature
• 1750 in music
• 1750 in science
• 1750s
• 1750s in South Africa
• 1750s in sports
• 1751
• 1751 in archaeology
• 1751 in Canada