Ferdinando Russo (November 25, 1866 – January 30, 1927) was a prominent Neapolitan journalist primarily remembered as a dialect poet and composer of song lyrics.

[2] He attended the Technical Institute reluctantly and frequented with great interest instead a republican club located in piazza Trinità Maggiore, participating in the many protest demonstrations.

[1] After leaving his studies, he worked as a proofreader for the Gazzetta di Napoli, taking an interest in poetry in the Neapolitan dialect, to which he then dedicated much of his life.

[4] His fame and knowledge of the slums and underworld of Naples was such that Emile Zola wanted him as an escort in his descent in the belly of the Neapolitan labyrinth in 1894.

The same year he published Origini, usi, costumi e riti dell’Annorata soggietà (Origins, customs, traditions and rituals of the "Honoured Society") in collaboration with Ernesto Serao, which was a combination of an essay, journalistic investigation and historical reconstruction with portraits of famous Camorristi and popular sonnets on the subject.