   rafael sabatini (29 april 1875 â 13 february 1950) was an italian/english writer of novels of romance and adventure. he is best known for his worldwide best-sellers: *the sea hawk (1915), a tale of an elizabethan englishman among the pirates of the barbary coast *scaramouche (1921), a tale of the french revolution in which a fugitive hides out in a commedia dell'arte troupe and later becomes a fencing master (sabatini wrote a sequel ten years later) *captain blood (1922), in which the title character is admiral of a fleet of pirate ships (sabatini also wrote two sequels comprising short stories) * bellarion the fortunate (1926), about a cunning young man who finds himself immersed in the politics of fifteenth-century italy in all, sabatini produced thirty-one novels, eight short story collections, six non-fiction books, numerous uncollected short stories, and a play. == biography == rafael sabatini was born in iesi, italy, to an english mother (anna trafford) and italian father. his parents were opera singers who became teachers. at a young age, rafael was exposed to many languages, living with his grandfather in england, attending school in portugal and, as a teenager, in switzerland. by the time he was seventeen, when he returned to england to live permanently, he was the master of five languages. he quickly added a sixth language â english â to his linguistic collection. he consciously chose to write in his adopted language, because, he said, "all the best stories are written in english." after a brief stint in the business world, sabatini went to work as a writer. he wrote short stories in the 1890s, and his first novel came out in 1902. in 1905 he married ruth goad dixon, the daughter of a liverpool merchant. it took sabatini roughly a quarter of a cent
1875_births 1950_deaths 20th-century_novelists British_historical_novelists British_novelists Italian_emigrants_to_the_United_Kingdom Italian_historical_novelists Italian_novelists Italian_writers Nautical_historical_novelists People_from_Iesi Pulp_fiction_writers