Italian author, poet and journalist Dino Buzzati, was probably best known for his novel The Tartar Steppe, but it was his short stories that set him apart from other authors from the same era. This could be in part due to the approach he took to his writings. The approach he used was to treat his short stories as if they were journalistic writings.
             He once said; It seems to me, fantasy should be as close as possible to journalism. The right word is not "banalizing", although in fact a little of this is involved. Rather, I mean that the effectiveness of a fantastic story will depend on its being told in the most simple and practical terms. (as cited by Lawrence Venuti).
             Those simple and practical terms were on prominent display throughout many of his works, but were especially vident in his short stories, and specifically in Seven Floors and Something That Begins with L.
             A 1983 review of his works said; Dino Buzzati, a fellow fantasist and countryman (to Italio Calvino) who died in 1972, has been largely ignored. The neglect is difficult to explain. (De Feo 1983 pg 247).
             De Feo may have found the neglect difficult to explain, but one reason why Buzzati may have found his stories not as popular as he might have wished was due to that journalistic style and realism found throughout his works.
             Buzzati, studying to become an attorney in 1928, was hired as a corrector at a Milan daily newspaper. Buzzati began his career on the Milan daily Corriere della Sera in 1928. (Buzzati 2006). He never left there. The journalistic environment in which he would become immersed would influence much of his writings.
             His bibliography would include:
             Barnab delle montagne (Barnabo of the Mountains, 1933)
             Il segreto del Bosco Vecchio (1935)
             Il deserto dei Tartari (The Tartar Steppe, 1940)
             I Sette Messaggeri (The Seven Messengers, 1942 - Short stories)
             La famosa invasione degli orsi in Si...