Carlo Collodi is the pen-name of Carlo Lorenzini who lived from 1826 to 1890. Collodi is the name of the little village in Tuscany, Italy, where his mother was born. Carlo was born in Florence, the son of a cook and a servant, and spent most of his childhood in the rough and tumble of the streets rather than in the classroom. This could have helped when twice he was called upon to be a soldier. He began his writing career in newspapers and started his own satirical paper Il Lampione (The Lantern). By the 1950s he was publishing fiction and non-fiction titles and soon decided to concentrate on writing for children because, “adults are too hard to please”.

In 1881 Carlo sent an editor friend a short episode in the life of a wooden puppet, wondering whether he would be interested in publishing this “bit of foolishness” in the children’s section of his paper. The editor did, Pinocchio was introduced to the world and the children loved it. The adve...

Carlo Collodi is the pen-name of Carlo Lorenzini who lived from 1826 to 1890. Collodi is the name of the little village in Tuscany, Italy, where his mother was born. Carlo was born in Florence, the son of a cook and a servant, and spent most of his childhood in the rough and tumble of the streets rather than in the classroom. This could have helped when twice he was called upon to be a soldier. He began his writing career in newspapers and started his own satirical paper Il Lampione (The Lantern). By the 1950s he was publishing fiction and non-fiction titles and soon decided to concentrate on writing for children because, “adults are too hard to please”.

In 1881 Carlo sent an editor friend a short episode in the life of a wooden puppet, wondering whether he would be interested in publishing this “bit of foolishness” in the children’s section of his paper. The editor did, Pinocchio was introduced to the world and the children loved it. The adventures of Pinocchio were serialised in the paper in 1881/82 and then published in 1883 with huge success. The first English language version appeared in 1892. The 1940 Disney cartoon has ensured that the character of Pinocchio remains well-known – but the book is much richer in the details of the adventures of the naughty puppet in search of boyhood.