Pinocchio


 * Carlo Collodi**
 * Carlo Collodi**

**Carlo Collodi** is the pen-name of **Carlo Lorenzini** (1826-90). **Collodi** is the name of the little village in Tuscany where his mother was born. He was born in Florence, the son of a cook and a servant.

Collodi started his writing career as a newspaperman: he wrote for other papers, and also started his own satirical paper Il Lampione but the government closed it down. Later he became a government official himself, working as a civil servant for the education department.

In the 1850s, he began to have a variety of both fiction and non-fiction books published. Once, he translated some French fairy-tales so well that he was asked whether he would like to write some of his own. The result was his fist major success, Giannettino, which is a kind of educational fairy- tale.

In 1881, he sent his friend, who edited a newspaper in Rome, a short episode in the life of a wooden puppet, wondering whether the editor would be interested in publishing it in his children's section. The editor did, and the children loved it. **The adventures of Pinocchio** were serialized in the paper in 1881-2, and then published in 1883 with huge success. The first English-language version was just as successful on its publication in 1892. ||

Who was the author of Pinocchio? When and where was he born? Before publishing Pinocchio what did Carlo do? Where did the tale of Pinocchio first appear?