Carlo Collodi

Name at birth: Carlo Lorenzini

A journalist by profession, Collodi is better known as the author of the fairy tale The Adventures of Pinocchio. The title character is a wooden marionette who comes to life and has various naughty adventures before revealing his good heart and becoming a living boy at last. Collodi published chapters of the story in serial form in an Italian newspaper beginning in 1881, and the story became a book in 1883. A cheery animated film of the story was released by Walt Disney in 1940.