The Playful Spirit: Italian Humor

About the Book

In this witty, scholarly book edited by his two sons, Professor Rudolph Altrocchi introduces some of the world’s most skillful and humorous authors whose purpose was to enrich our lives through smiles and laughter, guided by a playful spirit, the key ingredient of high quality humor.

Altrocchi, an American citizen born and brought up in Italy, graduated from Harvard, earned his Ph.D. at Harvard and taught at Harvard, Columbia, Chicago and Brown before becoming Chairman of the Dept. of Italian at Berkeley from 1928 to 1949, creating the largest and best Italian Department in the country. Professor Altrocchi’s captivatingly humorous analysis focuses not only on humor in Italian culture and literature but also on basic elements of humor in the human species.

About the Author

Dr. Paul Altrocchi earned his A.B. and MD degrees from Harvard, graduated from Columbia's N.Y. Neurological Institute and was a Professor at Stanford Medical School. Later a neurologist in Palo Alto and Oregon, he taught Neurology and International Health throughout the Third World. He retired to the scenic windward side of Oahu.

Dr. John Altrocchi graduated from Harvard and earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from Berkeley. During 14 years at Duke, he was voted best teacher. He helped found the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, where he taught for 38 years. Now retired, he lives in Reno with his wife, Laurel.