Italian writer Giovanni Verga was born #OTD in 1840.
He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the Verismo literary movement. He began writing in his teens, producing the historical novel Amore e Patria (1856). In 1880 his story collection Vita dei campi, including "Fantasticheria", "La lupa", "Jeli il pastore", "Pentolaccia", and Rosso Malpelo, most of which were about rural Sicily, came out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Verga