Glass Mountain

About the Book

Astronomers all over the world study the universe with powerful telescopes situated on cold mountain summits where skies are clear. What is it like to live in such a faraway community for extended periods of time? What are the consequences of romance, extra-marital love, unwanted pregnancy, attempted murder and a dangerous forest fire for such a group? Are the expected personal and social effects exaggerated or muted? What is the impact of a major external event, such as the onset of a world war? Noted poet and author Julia Cooley Altrocchi portrays what life was like in a pre-television era for such an isolated cluster of fewer than forty people — academic stargazers, their families and support staff — during the months immediately before and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It becomes clear that walls and houses on such an isolated mountain top are made of glass. Everybody knows everything. Secrets cannot be kept. Life's emotions and theatrics are intensified, more vivid, more vitally felt. The intriguing cast of characters is indeed living on a Glass Mountain in this dramatically gripping, linguistically captivating and thoroughly entertaining historical novel.

About the Author

Julia Cooley Altrocchi (1893-1972) was a poet born, hints of her innate gift appearing at the age of four. She published Poems of a Child when she was eleven, followed by The Dance of Youth, featuring her adolescent and young adult poetry. She graduated from Vassar in 1914, married Professor of Italian Rudolph Altrocchi in 1921 and lived in Berkeley from 1928 to 1972. During her long and distinguished writing career she published several poetry anthologies, two books and many articles on California history, and two historical novels, including Snow Covered Wagons, the dramatic and tragic story of the Donner Party, pioneers emigrating from the midwest to California in 1846-1847. She was twice President of the prestigious California Writers Club. Bobolo: Man of Mirth remained unpublished and among stored family papers until it became a Pandemic Project in 2020 for a son and granddaughter of Julia Cooley Altrocchi who, as co-editors, believe it contains a great deal of fun and good writing about an unusual Italian-American humorist.