Statue of Emilio Salgari

Emilio Carlo Giuseppe Maria Salgari was born in Verona on 21st August 1862 to a lower middle class family (his father was a textile tradesman) in corso Porta Borsari 7, where he spent his childhood. Later he moved to Valpolicella, in the small village of Negrar.

 
In 1878 he went to the Regio Istituto Tecnico e Nautico “Paolo Sarpi” in Venice, as he wished to become naval officer. But he didn’t realize his dream: in 1881 he abandoned the school, came back to Verona and began the activity of journalist, then that of novelist. Although Salgari always wrote about adventures and exotic places, he actually didn’t travel so much: he just made some training navigations and a three- month journey in the Adriatic sea on a merchant ship.
 
He wrote so many novels and tales, which were at first published by instalments on local and national newspapers  (he was editor of the newspaper “L’Arena” as well). He also created entire adventure sagas (such as “Pirati della Malesia”) and characters which became famous also thanks to the numerous film adaptations (first of all “Sandokan” and “Corsaro Nero”).
 
In 1892, after marrying, he moved to Torino with his family, first to the suburbs, then to the city center. Here he worked for many publishing houses for children’s books. In 1897, on a proposal from the Queen of Italy Margherita di Savoia, he was awarded the title “Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Corona d’Italia”.
 
On 25th April 1911, in dispair for the nervous breakdown of his wife and persecuted by economic difficulties (in spite of his editorial successes), he committed suicide after writing three letters, one to his children, one to the editors and one to directors and journalists from Torino.
 
The artist of the bronze statue located at the entrance of the City library is Sergio Pasetto (Verona, 1936).

Source: guidebook "Le statue di Verona", project supervised by Luca Leone, published in August 2015 with the support of the town council of Verona.