Elisabetta Dami
Elisabetta Dami (born 1 January 1958) is an Italian children's books author who is famous as the creator of the character Geronimo Stilton.
Elisabetta Dami | |
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Dami with some Geronimo Stilton books | |
Born | Elisabetta Maria Dami 1 January 1958 (age 63) Milan, Italy |
Pen name | Geronimo Stilton |
Occupation | Author |
Period | 2000–present |
Genre | Children's literature |
Notable works | Geronimo Stilton |
Website | |
www |
Biography
Dami is the daughter of publisher Piero Dami (who founded Dami Editore in 1972). At the age of thirteen she started out in the publishing world as a proofreader for the family business and at nineteen she wrote her first short stories. As an adventure lover, she got her aircraft pilot and parachutist licenses aged 20, and at 23 she traveled around the world on her own and completed a famous survival course at the Outward Bound School in Maine, in the United States.[1] Some of Dami's other adventures include taking part in a rally in the Sahara desert and crossing Africa from north to south in an off-road vehicle; she raced the 100-km Sahara ultramarathon and ran three New York marathons (in 2002, 2003, and 2017).[2]
The creation of Geronimo Stilton
Her experience as a volunteer with sick kids and children gave her the idea of writing adventure stories with a mouse called Geronimo Stilton as the protagonist. These stories went on to become a famous publishing sensation in Italy and internationally.[3] This was mainly because she found out in 1990 she could not have kids. So she decided to volunteer in a children's hospital. Caring for sick kids.[4]
For a while I worked as a volunteer in a hospital, and it was there, almost by chance, that I invented Geronimo Stilton … It was at the time when Patch Adams taught the world that children need to laugh to get better. So I started to make up funny stories in which the protagonist was a clumsy mouse called Geronimo Stilton. He would get involved in all sorts of entertaining adventures, full of funny events and twists in the plot, that children found really compelling.[5]
Since then Geronimo Stilton's stories have been translated into 49 languages[6] and have sold more than 161 million copies all over the world.[7]
References
- "The biography of Elisabetta Dami". elisabettadamionlus.org. Archived from the original on 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- "Elisabetta Dami". IMDb.com.
- "ELISABETTA DAMI - la Repubblica.it". repubblica.it.
- "My biography • Elisabetta Dami". Elisabetta Dami. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
- "The biography of Elisabetta Dami". www.elisabettadamionlus.org. Archived from the original on 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
- "Geronimo Stilton addestra draghi. E le prossime storie le scrivete voi". Corriere.it.
- "Il mio topo non teme le emozioni Il suo segreto è la resilienza". iltempodelledonne.corriere.it.
External links
- "Elisabetta Dami. Fòrum IMPULSA 2012" audio-video (4 July 2012) at youtube; vimeo
- Elisabetta Dami (11 December 2010) at la Repubblica
- Elisabetta Dami at Library of Congress Authorities, with 7 catalogue records
- Geronimo Stilton at Library of Congress Authorities, with 35 catalogue records
- Thea Stilton at Library of Congress Authorities, with 5 catalogue records