Throughout the 20th century illustrations of him on the back of his novels showed him clad in his captain’s uniform. At dinner parties he regaled his hosts with tales from his many voyages, guests to his home would often be shown artefacts acquired in far off lands. Here was a man of action that had explored the world and lived many adventures, adventures he would use for the basis of his 80 plus novels and hundreds of short stories to captivate readers worldwide. He claimed to have travelled throughout the American West where he met Buffalo Bill he had explored the Sudan, lived at the Mahdi's court, loved Indian princesses, sailed among the many islands of the Far East. At 34, I was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Margherita of Savoy for my contributions to literature.' A few years later I became editor of the Arena then at 32 I retired from journalism and dedicated myself to writing novels.

I retired at 26 and returned to Verona to become editor of the Nuova Arena where I wrote my first stories: Tay See, The Tiger of Malaysia and others. I obtained my Captain's papers at age 17 and began to travel the Seven Seas. At age 14, I entered the Naval Academy in Venice. 'I was born in Verona in 1862 to a family of modest merchants. Rossi, 'providing a sharp contrast to the stagnant literature of his times.' But who was this man that influenced so many? The Emilio Salgari I grew up with was larger than life. 'He delivered excitement and stimulated the imagination of Italian readers,' wrote adventure writer Vittorio G. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Pablo Neruda, Paco Ignacio Taibo, Claudio Magris, and Arturo Perez Reverte are but a few of those that read Salgari's novels in their youth, novels that got them hooked on reading. Many modern writers from Italy, Spain and Latin America first fell in love with stories and storytelling by reading Salgari's adventures.

Il corsaro nero re leone