EDMONDO DE

AMICIS (1846-1908)  , Italian writer, was born at Oneglia, in Liguria, on the 21st of October 1846 . After some schooling at Cuneo and Turin, he was sent to the Military School at Modena, from which he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the 3rd regiment of the line in 1865 . He fought at the battle o1 Custozza in 1866 . In 1867 he became director of the Italia From Braun, Liturgische Gewandung, by permission of the publisher, B . Herder . Militare, Florence . In the following year he published his first book, La Vita Militare, which consisted of sketches of military life, and attained wide popularity . After the overthrow of the pope's temporal power in 1870, De Amicis retired from the army and devoted himself to literature, making his headquarters at Turin . Always a traveller by inclination, he found opportunity for this in his new leisure, and some of his most popular books have been the product of his wanderings . Several of these have been translated into English and the other principal languages of Europe . The most important of these are his descriptions of Spain (1873), Holland (1894), Constantinople (1877) and Morocco (1879) . These gained him a well-deserved reputation as a brilliant depicter of scenery and the external aspects of life; solid information is not within their sphere; and much of their success is owing to the opportunities they afford for spirited illustration .

Subsequently De Amicis greatly extended his fame as a writer of fiction, especially by Il Romano d' un

Maestro, and the widely read Il Cuore (translated into English as An Italian Schoolboy's Journal); later volumes from his pen being La Carozza di tutti (centring round an electric tram), Memorie, Speranze e glorie, Ricordi d' infanzia a di scuola, L' Idioma gentile, and a volume of short stories, Nel Regno dell' Amore . He died suddenly of heart disease at Bordighera on the 12th of March 1908 .