Books by "Paul Hemenway Altrocchi"
3 books found
Bobolo: Man of Mirth
by Julia Cooley Altrocchi, Dr. Paul Altrocchi, Catherine Altrocchi Waidyatilleka
2020 · Xlibris Corporation
Bobolo Bonomo was born in Florence, Italy, in 1872, spent two years studying Liberal Arts at the University of Florence, then completed two years of hotel school. After a one-year courtship of the beauteous but sharp-tongued Fiammella, also from Florence, they married and soon emigrated to San Francisco, where they experienced the devastating earthquake of 1906 which destroyed their small but flourishing grocery store. The earthquake led Bobolo to buy a beautiful acreage fifty miles south of San Francisco, reminiscent of the countryside of Florence, where he established an inn, a restaurant, groves of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, a vineyard and a winery. Against the backdrop of a successful, innovative career, Bobolo was the epitome of a joyous person, devoted to laughter, practical jokes and the full enjoyment of life in all its aspects, especially comedic. He brought happiness and laughter to his children, his friends and acquaintances with just one exception — his wife. Fiammella was a fine chef and hostess but was often negative, bitter and highly critical of her husband, especially his propensity for mirth. This tale interweaves the life of Bobolo and his unusually jocular spirit with his love of history, literature, music, Italy and America while trying to cope with a shrewish wife. Could he and Fiammella ever reach an accommodation of their very different temperaments? The story is told with abundant humor by its part-Irish author.
The Golden Wheel is Julia Cooley Altrocchi’s fourth poetry anthology, upon which she was working when she died at age 79. The short poems chosen exemplify the broad spectrum of Julia’s aesthetic interests -- love, nature, optimism, philosophic reflection, the grandeur of history and travel, modern youth, and the meaning of Life. The editors, a son and a granddaughter, have enriched this anthology with a sampling of her youthful poetry as well as two powerful long narrative poems in their entirety -- Black Boat, which describes one of World War II’s least-known American racial injustices, and Chicago: Epic City, for which she won, at age 75, first prize in Poet Lore’s National Narrative Poem Contest. This collection of poetry illuminates the evolution and full sweep of Julia Cooley Altrocchi’s literary creativity and artistry.
Riddled with cannonball holes from their stunning defeat by the English Navy after trying to invade Queen Elizabeths Protestant realm in 1588 to restore Catholicism, the Spanish Armada sailed north around the Orkneys and Hebrides in their attempt to return home. The worst storms in fifty years, however, drove 24 Spanish ships relentlessly onto the rocky Irish coast, tearing them apart. Thousands of sailors and soldiers drowned; hundreds of unarmed Spaniards were slaughtered on the beaches. Those who fled across Ireland to reach Scotland faced daily peril for months. The story of those few who didnt die was told only once, by Captain Francisco de Cuellar. This true saga of survival against all odds, based upon Cuellars manuscript which lay hidden for 300 years, is vividly described in remarkable detail by historical novelists Paul Altrocchi and Julia Cooley Altrocchi, placing Captain Cuellar among the great heroes and legendary wanderers of history alongside Jason, seeker of the Golden Fleece; Sigurd, ancient Norse hero; and Homers Odysseus. Fraught With Hazard describes one of historys most dramatic and least-known talesthe fate of Spanish Armada survivors in Ireland after the English navy and stormy weather caused many of their warships to wreck on the treacherous Irish coast. Based on the sole witness-account of Captain Francisco de Cuellar, who endured seemingly endless death-defying crises before making it back to Spain, this enthralling epic is grippingly told by Paul and Julia Altrocchi. They breathe dazzling new life into a memorable 400 year-old saga of Homeric proportions. - Hank Whittemore, author of the compelling non-fiction books So That Others May Live and The Monument. It is hard to believe that the perilous adventures of Francisco de Cuellar are true but they are, and the Altrocchis breathtaking account of his daredevil escapades on the high-seas and on hostile shores is more vivid than the best that Hollywood has ever been able to offer. This is historical writing at its brightest, liveliest and very best. - English writer Alexander Waugh, author of the best-selling The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War, and Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family.