Elisabetta Dami

Last updated
Elisabetta Dami
Elisabettadami-2019.jpg
Dami in 2019
Born
Elisabetta Maria Dami

1 January 1958 (1958-01) (age 67)
Milan, Italy
Pen nameGeronimo Stilton
OccupationAuthor
Period1997–present
Genre Children's literature
Notable works Geronimo Stilton
Website
elisabettadami.com

Elisabetta Maria Dami (born 1 January 1958) is an Italian children's author. She is known for her book series Geronimo Stilton .

Contents

Biography

Dami is the daughter of publisher Piero Dami (who founded Dami Editore in 1972). At the age of 13 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. At 23 she traveled around the world on her own and completed a famous survival course at the Outward Bound school in Maine. [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] Dami has spoken at numerous conferences and debates in Italy and abroad, promoting culture and values. Frequently traveling internationally, Dami supports Italian cultural initiatives under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. In addition, Dami has served two terms as a National WWF councilor and is actively involved in various environmental conservation projects. [3] In 2022, Dami was awarded the title of Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, for her dedication to educating children. [4]

The creation of Geronimo Stilton

In 1990, Dami discovered that she was unable to have children. Shortly afterward she began volunteering at a children's hospital. [5]

As she cared for the sick children, Dami decided to write adventure stories that featured a mouse called Geronimo Stilton as the protagonist. These stories became a publishing sensation both in Italy and internationally. [6]

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. [7]

Geronimo Stilton's stories have been translated into 49 languages [8] and have sold more than 180 million copies worldwide. [9]

References

  1. "The biography of Elisabetta Dami". elisabettadamionlus.org. Archived from the original on 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  2. "Elisabetta Dami". IMDb.com.
  3. Dami, Elisabetta. "My biography, Elisabetta Dami". My biography, Elisabetta Dami.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Dami, Elisabetta. "Biography of Elisabetta Dami". Elisabetta Dami. Retrieved 2025-10-09.
  5. "My biography • Elisabetta Dami". Elisabetta Dami. Archived from the original on 2021-08-31. Retrieved 2020-12-10.
  6. "ELISABETTA DAMI - la Repubblica.it". repubblica.it. 11 December 2010.
  7. "The biography of Elisabetta Dami". Archived from the original on 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  8. "Geronimo Stilton addestra draghi. E le prossime storie le scrivete voi". Corriere.it. 4 April 2017.
  9. "Il mio topo non teme le emozioni Il suo segreto è la resilienza". iltempodelledonne.corriere.it. 8 December 2017.