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{{Short description|Italian novelist, journalist and poet (1846 – 1908)}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Edmondo De Amicis
| image = E. De Amicis 01 (cropped).jpg
| imagesize = 
| caption = 
| birth_date = {{birth date|1846|10|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Oneglia]], [[Piedmont-Sardinia]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1908|3|11|1846|10|21|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Bordighera]], [[Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946)|Kingdom of Italy]]
| occupation = Novelist, journalist, short-story writer, poet
| genre = [[Children's literature]]
| movement =
| influences =
| influenced =
| website =
}}
[[File:Edmondo De Amicis.jpg|thumb|[[Gabrielle D. Clements]], ''Edmondo De Amicis'', 1898, etching<ref>{{cite book|title=Book News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvxSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA138|year=1895|publisher=J. Wanamaker|page=138}}</ref>]]
'''Edmondo De Amicis''' ({{IPA|it|edˈmondo de aˈmiːtʃis}}; 21 October 1846 – 11 March 1908) was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet, and short-story writer. His best-known book is the [[children's novel]] ''[[Heart (Novel)|Heart]]''.

==Early career==
Born in [[Oneglia]] (today part of the city of [[Imperia (city)|Imperia]]), he went to the [[Military Academy of Modena]], and became an [[Army officer]] in the new [[Italian unification|Kingdom of Italy]]. Edmondo fought in the [[Battle of Custoza (1866)|battle of Custoza]] during the [[Third Italian War of Independence]], a defeat of [[House of Savoy|Savoy]] forces against the [[Austrian Empire]]; the spectacle left him disappointed, and contributed to his later decision to leave military life.

In [[Florence]], he wrote his first [[sketch (drawing)|sketches]] dealing with his frontline experience, collected as ''La vita militare'' ("Military Life", 1868), and first published by the journal of the [[Italian Minister of Defense|Ministry of Defense]], ''L'Italia Militare''. He also met many leading literary figures in Florence and became interested in [[Alessandro Manzoni]]'s ideas on language for the new, heterogeneous nation.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia
|last         = Lucas
|first        = A.
|date         = 2006
|title        = De Amicis, Edmondo
|url          = https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195146561.001.0001/acref-9780195146561-e-0820
|encyclopedia = The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature
|location     = Oxford
|publisher    = Oxford University Press
|access-date  = 5 June 2025
}}</ref> In 1870, he joined the staff of the journal ''[[La Nazione]]'' in [[Rome]], and his correspondence at the time later served as base for his travel writings: ''Spagna'' (1873), ''Olanda'' (1874), ''Ricordi di Londra'' (1874), ''Marocco'' (1876), ''[[Constantinople (De Amicis book)|Constantinople]]'' (1878), ''Ricordi di Parigi'' (1879). A new edition of ''Costantinople'', considered by many his masterpiece and the best description of the city in the 19th century, was published in 2005, with a foreword by [[Umberto Eco]].{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

==''Heart'' success==

{{main|Heart (novel)|l1=Heart}}

''[[Heart (novel)|Heart]]'' was issued by [[Treves (publisher)|Treves]] on 17 October 1886, then the [[first day of school]] in [[Education in Italy|Italy]]. Its success was immense: in a few months it was printed in 40 Italian editions and translated into dozens of languages. Its praise for the creation of the united Italian state in the previous decade contributed to its reception, but also led to criticism from some [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] politicians for failing to depict the nature of the [[Holy See]]'s opposition to the [[Capture of Rome|annexation of Rome]].

Initiated to the [[Scottish Rite]] [[Freemasonry]], possibly in the regular [[Masonic Lodge]] ''Concordia'' in [[Montevideo]],<ref>Vittorio Gnocchini, ''L'Italia dei Liberi Muratori. Brevi biografie di Massoni famosi'', Rome-Milan: Erasmo Edizioni-Mimesis, 2005, p. 93.</ref> Uruguay, De Amicis held the public greeting speech in honor of the mason [[Giovanni Bovio]] during the first representation of his theatral drama titled ''[[Paul the Apostle|San Paolo]]'', interpreted by the Italian actor and mason [[Giovanni Emanuel]]. His book ''Cuore'' has been considered for decades an educative textbook largely read and studied in the Italian public schools. Some literary critics noted it substituted the traditional Roman Catholic doctrine with a lay [[civil religion]] where heroes took the place of [[Christian martyr]]s, the [[Statuto Albertino]] displaced the [[Gospel]]s, the Church, its believers and the [[Ten Commandments]] were respectively deleted in favour of the State, the figure of the citizen and the protection of the Italian codes of laws.<ref>Rosario F. Esposito, ''La Massoneria e l'Italia. Dal 1860 ai nostri giorni'', Rome: Edizioni Paoline, 1979, p. 244.</ref> The [[Grand Orient of Italy]] recognized De Amicis as one of his most notable past members.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.grandeoriente.it/massoni-padri-ditalia-gli-elenchi-dei-vip/|title=Massoni e padri d'Italia, ecco gli elenchi. Dei vip|trans-title=Freemasons and fathers of Italy.|website=[[Grand Orient of Italy]]|date=4 February 2017}}</ref>

==Later years==
The [[Nationalism|nationalist]] message visible in De Amicis' works was soon fused with a commitment to [[socialism]] (a trend visible within ''Heart''). In 1896, he adhered to the [[Italian Socialist Party]]. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1901.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=17 April 2011}}</ref>

His later works include: ''Sull'oceano'' (1889), dealing with the plight of Italian emigrants overseas, ''Il romanzo di un maestro'' (1890), ''[[Love and Gymnastics|Amore e ginnastica]]'' (1891), ''Maestrina degli operai'' (1895), ''La carrozza di tutti'' (1899), ''L'idioma gentile'' (1905), and ''Nuovi ritratti letterari e artistici'' (1908). At the same time, he contributed to the [[Turin]]-based ''[[Il Grido del Popolo]]'' - his articles were collected as ''Questione sociale'' ("Social Issues", 1894).

De Amicis died in [[Bordighera]] at the "Hotel de la Reine", which he chose because it was [[George MacDonald]]'s [[Casa Coraggio, Bordighera]]. His last years were marked by tragedy and spent in reclusion; he was marked by his mother's death, and the frequent conflicts with his wife - ultimately, these were the source of an even greater emotional shock for De Amicis, as they led to his son Furio's suicide (as schoolchildren, Furio and his brother Ugo had served as inspiration for ''Heart'').

==Legacy==
Alberto Brambilla of [[Sorbonne University]] wrote that "historians of Italian literature consider him a “minor author" but that the publication of ''Constantinople'' was evidence that he was "one best-known Italian authors abroad".<ref name=Brambillap185>{{cite journal|author=Brambilla, Alberto|title="La fata dei mille amanti": Appunti su Costantinopoli di Edmondo De Amicis|trans-title=“The fairy of a thousand lovers”: Notes on Constantinople by Edmondo De Amicis|journal=Litera: Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies|publisher=Istanbul University Press|year=2018|volume=28|issue=2|pages=185–200|doi=10.26650/LITERA482712|language=it|doi-access=free}} - The document includes an extended English abstract. CITED: p. 185.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{Commons}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=7650| name=Edmondo De Amicis}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edmondo De Amicis}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1133}}
* [http://jv.gilead.org.il/evans/De_Amicis_interview_with_JV.html Edmondo de Amicis, ''A Visit to Jules Verne and Victorien Sardou'']
* [http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/AUT133.HTM De Amicis' works]: text with concordances and frequency list
* [http://xoomer.alice.it/ildeamicis/index.html  De Amicis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516084539/http://xoomer.alice.it/ildeamicis/index.html |date=2008-05-16 }}: the full text of Cuore

{{Heart (novel)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Amicis, Edmondo}}
[[Category:1846 births]]
[[Category:1908 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Imperia]]
[[Category:Italian children's writers]]
[[Category:Italian journalists]]
[[Category:Italian male journalists]]
[[Category:Italian male short story writers]]
[[Category:Italian Socialist Party politicians]]
[[Category:Writers from the Kingdom of Sardinia]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Italian male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century Italian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian male writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Italian short story writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Italian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian short story writers]]
[[Category:Italian Freemasons]]
[[Category:People of the Third Italian War of Independence]]