The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Rudolph Altrocchi and Julia Cooley Altrocchi Papers 1912-1956
© 2016 University of Chicago Library
| Title: | Altrocchi, Rudolph and Julia Cooley Altrocchi. Papers |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1912-1956 |
| Size: | 0.25 linear feet (1 box) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | Rudolph Altrocchi (1882-1952), professor of Italian and writer. Julia Cooley Altrocchi (1893-1972), poet and novelist. The collection includes letters sent to Rudolph and Julia Altrocchi by University of Chicago President Harry Pratt Judson, author Henry Blake Fuller, playwright Alice Gerstenberg, artist Lorado Taft, and others. Also contained in the collection are reprints of articles by Altrocchi. |
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Altrocchi, Rudolph and Julia Cooley Altrocchi. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
Rudolph Altrocchi was born on October 31, 1882 in Florence, Italy. He attended Joseph Domenge’s French School in Florence, a Swiss school, and the Prosser School of Kansas City, Missouri. He received his A.B. in 1908, his A.M. in 1909, and his Ph.D in 1914 from Harvard University.
Altrocchi taught romance languages at Columbia University from 1910-1911. He went on to University of Pennsylvania, where he taught the same subject from 1911-1912. From 1912-1915 he was an instructor in French and Italian at Harvard. Altrocchi came to the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of Italian in 1916, and became an associate professor in 1922. In 1927 he accepted the chair of Italian at Brown University, but in 1928 he became the chairman of the Italian languages and literature department at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as chair until 1946, and remained as a professor of Italian until 1952.
Altrocchi was the Propaganda Director in Italy for the Board of War Information under President Wilson, from 1918-1919. He was a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry, and served as a liasion officer in Lyon, France. In 1921 he was awarded the title and medal of Cavaliere dell’ Ordine della Corona d’Italia by the King of Italy. In 1934 he was awarded the title and medal of Officier de l’Academie de France by the French government.
Altrocchi was the founder and co-editor (1924-1928) of Italica, the quarterly bulletin of the American Association of Teachers of Italian. Volume XXVII(2) of June 1950 was a tribute volume dedicated to Altrocchi, He was also president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco from 1932-1938, vice president of the Associated Harvard Clubs from 1934-1941 and president of the same organization from 1942-1947, and served as president of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast. He was a member of the Literary Club of Chicago.
Altrocchi wrote Sleuthing in the Stacks (1944), Deceptive Cognates (1935). He was co-editor of Italian Short Stories (1912), Giacosa’s Tristi Amori (1921) and Sracco’s Il Piccolo Santo (1929). He translated Girolamo Sommi-Picenardi’s Snow and Steel (1926) and was a contributor to The Nation, North American Review, The Drama, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, and to many other scholarly magazines and publications. He died on May 13, 1953 in Berkeley, California.
Julia Cooley Altrocchi was born in 1893 in Seymour Connecticut, to Harlan Cooley and Nellie Wooster Cooley. She graduated from the University of Chicago’s University High School, and from Vassar College in 1914. She Rudolph Altrocchi in 1920. The couple had two sons, John Cooley and Paul Hemenway. Julia Altrocchi was a poet and novelist, and wrote many works for children and adults, including The Poems of a Child, The Dance of Youth, Snow Covered Wagons, and Wolves Against the Moon. She from Chicago moved to Berkeley, California with her husband in 1928, and resided there until her death in 1972.
The collection includes letters sent to Rudolph and Julia Altrocchi by University of Chicago President Harry Pratt Judson, author Henry Blake Fuller, playwright Alice Gerstenberg, artists Lorado Taft and Earl H. Reed, and others. Also contained in the collection are reprints of articles by Rudolph Altrocchi An Old Italian Version of the Legend of Saint Alexius (1915) and Gabriele D’Annunzio, The Poet (1930).
The collection was previously part of the Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection.
| Box 1 Folder 1 | Julia Cooley Altrocchi, correspondence, 1912-1921
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| Box 1 Folder 2 | Julia Cooley Altrocchi, correspondence, 1922-1956
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| Box 1 Folder 3 | Rudolph Altrocchi, correspondence, 1916-1936
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| Box 1 Folder 4 | Offprints of articles by Rudolph Altrocchi, 1915-1930
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