Joseph Rocchietti was an Italian-American novelist. A native of

Casale Monferrato Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy, northwestern Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po River, Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montfe ...

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

, he emigrated to the United States in 1831. He was active as a writer there during the years 1835–1875 and is best known for '' Lorenzo and Oonalaska'' (1835), which is the earliest known novel by an

Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

. This

epistolary novel An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...

, a love story written in English, is set partly in Europe and partly in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. He also published a number of long essays including one against the Massachusetts ‘ nativist’ movement which was reviewed by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

in Poe's ''

Broadway Journal The ''Broadway Journal'' was a short-lived New York City-based newspaper founded by Charles Frederick Briggs and John Bisco in 1844 and was published from January 1845 to January 1846. In its first year, the publication was bought by Edgar Allan ...

''.

First Edition Title Page of Lorenzo and Oonalaska

References

* *

External links

* * People from Casale Monferrato American writers of Italian descent American male novelists Italian emigrants to the United States 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American male writers Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{US-novelist-1800s-stub