Born in 1898 in
Calalzo di Cadore, a small town in Italian region of
Veneto, Fiori moved to Milan where he began his journalistic career in 1921, collaborating with the humor magazine
Barbapedana (1921–1923), with
Cacciatore Italiano (a periodical of which he was also the editor-in-chief until its closure) and, from 1924, with the satirical weekly
Il Guerrin Meschino. In 1926, he joined the main Italian newspaper,
Corriere della Sera, where he remained for nineteen years and then also wrote for the ''Corriere d'Informazione
, la Domenica del Corriere, Corriere dei Piccoli, La Lettura (1937–1945), and Fantasie d'Italia''. In 1943, Fiori published his first detective novel,
Colpa segreta, followed by ''Il filone d'oro
and Lo smeraldo di Maria Antonietta
in 1944. The following year, he released the novel La squadra fantasma
, illustrated by Carlo Cossio, and in 1946, Entro il sei Marzo
, published in the I romanzi dell'avventura'' series by
Edizioni Alpe directed by Romualdo Natoli (previously published in 1943 in la Domenica del Corriere). From the forties onwards, he was also prolific as a playwright. In 1946, he wrote the comedy
La signorina No, awarded at the Milan Casa della cultura by
Sabatino Lopez. In 1949, he published the farces ''Non c'è trucco!
and La poltrona di Procuste
, followed by the three-act comedy Non si sa mai
, the comic opera Due schiaffi non-te li leva nessuno
, and the detective comedy La banda della nebbia''. In 1951 for Carlo Signorelli Editore, he wrote the two volumes
La storia del Far West (
The History of the Far West) and
La storia degli ammutinati del Bounty (
The History of the Mutineers of the Bounty), with illustrations by
Francesco Pescador, both published in the popular literature series directed by
Gian Carlo Testoni. In 1955, he published the essay
Sono innocente (
I am Innocent) with Cappelli, which
The Italian Scene in New York City listed in early 1956 among the most read books in Italy. Dedicated to the theme of judicial errors, the book addressed dozens of cases of wrongful convictions worldwide, from the case of the
Little Baker of Venice, to the
Gino Girolimoni case, from the
Dreyfus affair to the story of
Sacco and Vanzetti. In the same year, he wrote the novel
The Prairie Rebels, which earned him the Castello Prize and also had good international success: translated into English by H. E. Scott, it was published with illustrations by
Nadir Quinto both in the United Kingdom in 1959 (
The Prairie Rebels), and in the United States in 1960 (
The Wild Horses of Tuscany), and then in South Africa in 1963 with translation by Marie Agostinis (
Die rebelle van die grasvlakte). The book, set in the
Tuscan Maremma, told the story of Pippo, Vanni, and Bicci and the three foals that had invaded their farm, while the
Second World War was in its final stages. British critics described it as "
a remarkable piece of literature providing a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience". His
Far West of 1964, published by Signorelli in different editions with different pagination, was republished by Rylee in 1969 in the United Kingdom, with translation by Susan Cannata. In 1963, Fiori published the short story collection
A tu per tu con le belve (
Face to Face with Beasts), included by Lina Sacchetti in her
History of Literature for Youth from 1968. A friend of
Dino Buzzati, in his old age Fiori wrote the column
The Secretary for Everyone for
Domenica del Corriere directed by
Guglielmo Zucconi, in which he answered readers' questions on various topics. == Works ==