Rafael Sabatini (1875 – 1950) was an Italian-English writer of romance and adventure novels. He is best known for his historical novels such as Scaramouche and Captain Blood. Sabatini began writing short stories in the 1890s, his first novel was published in 1902, and after "The Knight in the Tavern," published in 1904, he published a series of historical novels. The most famous of his early works was The Sea Hawk in 1915, but it was not a hit, and he spent a long period of unhappiness before becoming an international best-selling author with the huge success of Scaramouche in 1921. His 1922 novel, Captain Blood, was also a big hit. This led to the reprinting of all of his early works. Sabatini was also known for his prolific writing, producing a new book almost every year: 31 novels, 8 short stories, 6 non-fiction books, as well as many unpublished short stories and plays. In the 1940s, he wrote at a slower pace due to illness, but he never stopped.