Emilio Salgari - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Emilio Salgari
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emilio Salgari (Italian pronunciation: [salari], but often erroneously pronounced [salari]; August 21, 1862 April 25, 1911) was an Italian writer of action adventure swashbucklers and a pioneer of science ction. For over a century, his novels were mandatory reading for generations of youth eager for exotic adventures. In Italy, his extensive body of work was more widely read than that of Dante. Today he is still among the 40 most translated Italian authors. Many of his most popular novels have been adapted as comics, animated series and feature lms. He is considered the father of Italian adventure ction and Italian pop culture, and the "grandfather" of the Spaghetti [1] Western.

Emilio Salgari

Born Died

August 21, 1862 Verona, Italy April 25, 1911 (aged 48) Turin, Italy

Contents
1 2 3 4 5 6 Life Writing career Legacy Films Work available in English 5.1 Tigers of Malaysia series 5.2 Black Corsair series Bibliography 6.1 Pirates of Malaysia (Sandokan) 6.2 The Black Corsair series 6.3 The Pirates of Bermuda Series 6.4 Adventures in the Old West Series 6.5 Other series 6.5.1 Two sailors 6.5.2 Il Fiore delle Perle 6.5.3 I gli dell'aria 6.5.4 Capitan Tempesta Other adventures References External links

Occupation Nationality Genres

Journalist, writer, novelist Italian Adventure, Westerns, Historical ction, Science ction

Notable work(s)

Sandokan The Tigers of Mompracem (series) The Black Corsair (series)

Inuences Inuenced

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Life
Emilio Salgari was born in Verona to a family of modest merchants. From a young age, he had a desire to explore the seas and studied seamanship at a Naval Academy in Venice, but his academic performance was too poor, and he never graduated. He began his writing career as a reporter on the daily La Nuova Arena, which published some of his work as serials. As his powers of narration grew, so did his reputation for having lived a life of adventure. He claimed to have explored the Sudan desert, met Bualo Bill in Nebraska (he had actually met him during his "wild West Show" tour of Italy), and sailed the Seven Seas. His early biographies were lled with adventurous tales set in the Far East, events which he claimed were the basis for much of his work. Salgari had actually never ventured farther than the Adriatic Sea. He turned his passion for exploration and discovery to writing. His rst stories were serialized in newspapers. Early in his career, he began signing his tales as "Captain Salgari", a title he once defended in a duel when his claim to it was questioned. Though knighted by the Queen of Italy and wildly popular, Salgari did not earn much money from his books and lived hand to mouth for most of his life. Salgari married Ida Peruzzi - nicknamed "Aida," - with whom he had four children which added to the family's economic problems - and with whom he was very happy for [2] years. Salgari private life was clouded by several tragedies. In 1889 his father [2] Ida became ill after 1903 and Salgari's struggling increased with committed suicide. her medical bills. These events led Salgari to depression, and he attempted suicide in 1910. After Ida was committed to a mental ward in 1911, Salgari was overwhelmed and took his own life [2] soon afterwards, imitating the Japanese ritual of seppuku, and died on April 25, 1911. He left three letters, addressed to his and Ida's children, his publisher, and the editors of his newspaper in Turin. The letter to his publisher said:

[2]

To you that have grown rich from the sweat of my brow while keeping myself and my family in misery, I ask only that from those prots you nd the funds to pay for my funeral. I salute you while I break my pen. Emilio Salgari

One of the sons of Emilio and Aida also committed suicide in 1933. [2]

Writing career
Salgari wrote more than 200 adventure stories and novels, setting his tales in exotic locations, with heroes from a wide variety of cultures. He gained inspiration from reading foreign literature and newspapers, travel magazines and encyclopedias, which he used to portray his heroes' worlds. He wrote four major series: The Pirates of Malaysia; The Black Corsair Saga; The Pirates of Bermuda; and a collection of
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adventures set in the Old West. Salgaris heroes were mostly pirates, outlaws and barbarians, ghting against greed, abuse of power, and corruption. Salgari opposed colonization in his ction. His most legendary heroes Sandokan, The Tiger of Malaysia, a Bornean prince turned pirate, and his loyal lieutenant Yanez of Gomera, led their men in attacks against the Dutch and British eets. They declared war on James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak, and tried to force him from his throne. The Black Corsair and Captain Morgan battled against injustice in the Caribbean, while Salgaris pirates of Bermuda fought for American independence. His tales had been so popular that soon his publisher hired other writers to develop adventure stories under his name. They added 50 novels to his canon. Salgari's style was imitated by many, but no other Italian adventure writer managed to duplicate his popular success.

Legacy
Salgari's work was imitated in one form or another by many who came after him. A large part of the Italian adventure literature is a continuation of Salgari's work. Many late 19th century writers such as Luigi Motta and Emilio Fancelli wrote further Sandokan adventures imitating Salgari's style: fast-paced, lled with great battles, blood, violence and punctuated with humour. The style soon spread to movies and television. One example is the work of the director Sergio Leone, whose outlaw heroes in his Spaghetti Westerns were inspired by Salgari's piratical adventurers. More than 50 lm adaptations have been made of Salgari's novels, and many more were inspired by his work (corsair stories, jungle adventure stories, and swashbuckling B movies, such as Morgan, the Pirate, starring Steve Reeves). Federico Fellini loved Salgari's books. Pietro Mascagni had over 50 Salgari titles in his library. Umberto Eco read Salgari's works as a child. His work was very popular in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, where Latin American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda, all attested to reading him when young. Che Guevara read 62 of his books, according to his biographer Paco Ignacio Taibo II, who remarked that the revolutionary's anti-imperialism could be seen to be "Salgarian in origin". Though popular with the masses, Salgari was shunned by critics throughout his life and for most of the 20th century. It was not until the late 1990s that his writings began to be revisited, and new translations appeared in print. They have been newly appreciated for their characterization and plots. In 2001 the rst National Salgari Association was [2] founded in Italy to celebrate his work.

Films
Historians debate the rst lm adaptation of a Salgari novels. Cabiria, directed by Giovanni Pastrone bears many similarities to Emilio Salgari's 1908 adventure novel

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Cartagine in Fiamme (Carthage is Burning). Salgari was never credited, and Gabriele D'Annunzio was billed as the ocial screenwriter. D'Annunzio had been brought on board to help revise the lm once it had been shot, earning the credit by changing the title to Cabiria, changing the name of some of the characters, and rewriting the captions from what Pastrone had done. The three-hour epic movie with its cast of thousands created a sensation throughout Italy. It pioneered epic screen production and foreshadowed the work of D.W. Grith, Sergei Eisenstein and others. Vitale De Stefano brought Salgari's pirates to the big screen in the early 1920s with a series of ve lms shot over two years, including Il corsaro nero The Black Corsair and La Regina dei caraibi (The Queen of the Caribbean). Lex Barker appeared as the tiger hunter Tremal-Naik in the 1955 B-movie The Mystery of The Black Jungle. Sandokan was played by Hercules star Steve Reeves in Sandokan the Great and The Pirates of Malaysia aka The Pirates of The Seven Seas. Ray Danton played the pirate in Luigi Capuano's Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak (aka Throne of Vengeance.) and later reprised the role in Sandokan Fights Back (aka The Conqueror and the Empress). In 1976, the landmark Sandokan TV miniseries played throughout Europe. It starred Kabir Bedi in the title role and attracted more than 80 million viewers a week. Bedi has been considered the quintessential Sandokan ever since. He later reprised the role in the late 1990s in a series of sequels.

Work available in English

Though Salgari's novels have been popular in Europe and Latin America for over a century, at present only seven titles are available in English.

Tigers of Malaysia series

The Mystery of The Black Jungle Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem Sandokan: The Pirates of Malaysia Sandokan: The Two Tigers Sandokan: The King of the Sea

Black Corsair series

The Black Corsair The Son of the Red Corsair

Bibliography
Pirates of Malaysia (Sandokan)
The The The The The
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Mystery of the Black Jungle (I Misteri della Jungla Nera, 1895) Tigers of Mompracem (Le tigri di Mompracem, 1900) Pirates of Malaysia (I pirati della Malesia, 1896) Two Tigers (Le due Tigri, 1904) King of the Sea (Il re del mare, 1906)
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Emilio Salgari - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Quest for a Throne (Alla conquista di un impero, 1907) Sandokan Fights Back (Sandokan alla riscossa, 1907) Return to Mompracem (La riconquista di Mompracem, 1908) The False Brahman (Il Bramino dellAssam, 1911) An Empire Crumbles (La caduta di un impero, 1911) Yanez Revenge (La rivincita di Yanez, 1913) The last two tiles were published posthumously.

The Black Corsair series

The Black Corsair (Il Corsaro Nero, 1898) Queen of The Caribbean (La regina dei Caraibi, 1901) Yolanda Daughter of The Black Corsair (Jolanda, la glia del Corsaro Nero, 1905) Son of the Red Corsair (Il glio del Corsaro Rosso, 1908) The Last Pirates (Gli ultimi libustieri, 1908)

The Pirates of Bermuda Series

I corsari delle Bermude (1909) La crociera della Tuonante (1910) Straordinarie avventure di Testa di Pietra (1915)

Adventures in the Old West Series

Sulle frontiere del Far-West (1908) La scotennatrice (1909) Le selve ardenti (1910)

Other series
Two sailors Il Tesoro del Presidente del Paraguay (1894) Il Continente Misterioso (1894) Il Fiore delle Perle Le stragi delle Filippine (1897) Il Fiore delle Perle (1901) I gli dell'aria I Figli dell'Aria (1904) Il Re dell'Aria (1907) Capitan Tempesta Capitan Tempesta (1905)

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Il Leone di Damasco (1910)

Other adventures
La favorita del Mahdi (1887) Duemila Leghe sotto l'America (1888; also known as: Il Tesoro Misterioso) La scimitarra di Budda (1892) I pescatori di balene (1894) Le novelle marinaresche di Mastro Catrame (1894; also known as: Il vascello maledetto) Un dramma nell'Oceano Pacico (1895) Il re della montagna (1895) I naufraghi del Poplador (1895) Al Polo Australe in velocipede (1895) Nel paese dei ghiacci (1896) I drammi della schiavit (1896) Il re della Prateria (1896) Attraverso l'Atlantico in pallone (1896) I naufragatori dell'Oregon (1896) I Robinson italiani (1896) I pescatori di Trepang (1896) Il capitano della Djumna (1897) La rosa del Dong-Giang (1897; also known as: Tay-See) La citt dell'oro (1898) La Costa d'Avorio (1898) Al Polo Nord (1898) La capitana del Yucatan (1899) Le caverne dei diamanti (1899) Le avventure di un marinaio in Africa (1899) Il glio del cacciatore d'orsi (1899) Gli orrori della Siberia (1900) I minatori dell'Alaska (1900) Gli scorridori del mare (1900) Avventure fra le pellirosse (1900) La Stella Polare e il suo viaggio avventuroso (1901; also known as: Verso l'Artide con la Stella Polare) Le stragi della China (1901; also known as: Il sotterraneo della morte) La montagna d'oro (1901; also known as: Il treno volante) I naviganti della Meloria (1902) La montagna di luce (1902) La giraa bianca (1902) I predoni del Sahara (1903) Le pantere di Algeri (1903) Sul mare delle perle (1903) L'uomo di fuoco (1904) I solitari dell'Oceano (1904) La citt del re lebbroso (1904) La gemma del ume rosso (1904) L'eroina di Port Arthur (1904, also known as La Naufragatrice) Le grandi pesche nei mari australi (1904)

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La sovrana del campo d'oro (1905) La Perla Sanguinosa (1905) Le glie dei Faraoni (1905) La Stella dell'Araucania (1906) Le meraviglie del Duemila (1907) Il tesoro della montagna azzurra (1907) Le aquile della steppa (1907) Sull'Atlante (1907) Cartagine in amme (1908) Una sda al Polo (1909) La Bohme italiana (1909) Storie rosse (1910) I briganti del Ri (1911) I predoni del gran deserto (1911)

References
1. ^ Giovanni Arpino, Emilio Salgari, il padre degli eroi, Mondadori 1991 2. ^ a b c d e f Francesco Troiano. "Biography of Emilio Salgari" (http://www.italica.rai.it /eng/principal/topics/bio/salgari.htm) . Italica Rai. http://www.italica.rai.it/eng/principal /topics/bio/salgari.htm. Retrieved 30 April 2009.

O. Nalesini, L'Asia Sud-orientale nella cultura italiana. Bibliograa analitica ragionata, 1475-2005. Roma, IsIAO, 2009, pp. 350362 ISBN 978-88-6323-284-4

External links
"Emilio Salgari" (http://www.emiliosalgari.it/) , Ocial Website, in Italian "Emilio Salgari" (http://www.rohpress.com/) , ROH Press, in English. Also includes images from movies and animated series based on his novels. "Emilio Salgari: Literatures Invisible Man" (http://www.rohpress.com/salgari.htm) , ROH Press, in English. Carla Passino, "Book of the Week: Sandokan, the tigers of Mompracem" (http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy-featured/book-week/book-week-sandokan-tigersmompracem) , Italy Magazine, December 2009 Salgari's Works (http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/Aut627.HTM) : text with concordances and frequency list Le novelle marinaresche di Mastro Catrame (http://www.classicistranieri.com /dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=6055) , Audiobook Creative Commons Edition . http://books.google.com/books?q=emilio+salgari&btnG=Search+Books. Works by Emilio Salgari (http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s#a31123) at Project Gutenberg Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emilio_Salgari& oldid=477602886" Categories: 1862 births 1911 deaths People from Verona Italian historical novelists Nautical historical novelists Writers of historical novels set in Early Modern period Suicides by sharp instrument Writers who committed suicide Suicides in Italy Italian fantasy writers

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Italian science ction writers

Maritime writers

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