Edmondo de Amicis

Edmondo De Amicis
Gabrielle D. Clements, Edmondo De Amicas, 1898, etching
Born	(1846-10-21)21 October 1846 Oneglia, Piedmont-Sardinia1
Died	11 March 1908(1908-03-11) (aged 61) Bordighera, Kingdom of Italy
Occupation	novelist, journalist, short-story writer, poet
Genre	children's literature

Edmondo De Amicis (Italian pronunciation: [edˈmondo de aˈmitʃis]; 21 October 1846 – 11 March 1908) was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer. His best-known book is Cuore, a children's novel translated into English as Heart.

Born in Oneglia (today part of the city of Imperia), he went to the Military Academy of Modena, and became an Army officer in the new Kingdom of Italy. De Amicis fought in the battle of Custoza during the Third Independence War, a defeat of Savoy forces against the Austrian Empire; the spectacle left him disappointed, and contributed to his later decision to leave military life.

In Florence, he wrote his first sketches dealing with his frontline experience, collected as La vita militare ("Military Life", 1868), and first published by the journal of the Ministry of Defense, L'Italia Militare. In 1870, he joined the staff of the journal La Nazione in Rome, and his correspondence at the time later served as base for his travel writings: Spagna (1873), Olanda (1874), Ricordi di Londra (1874), Marocco (1876), Costantinopoli (1878), Ricordi di Parigi (1879). A new edition of Costantinopoli, considered by many his masterpiece and the best description of the city in the 19th century, was published in 2005, with a foreword by Umberto Eco.