Finding Aid for the Oreste F. Pucciani Papers LSC.0585

Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections

Title: Oreste F. Pucciani papers

Creator: Pucciani F., Oreste, 1916-1999

Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0585

Physical Description: 39.0 Linear Feet (78 boxes)

Date (inclusive): 1890-1996

Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Language of Material: Materials are in English.

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Property rights to the physical objects belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

[Identification of item], Oreste F. Pucciani papers (Collection 585). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

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UCLA Catalog Record ID: 9961873403606533 

Oreste Francesco Pucciani was born in Cleveland in 1916, the son of an Italian immigrant. He received his BA from Case Western Reserve in 1939 and his PhD from Harvard in 1943. In 1948 he joined the UCLA faculty, where he taught until his retirement in 1979. Pucciani was best known as an interpreter of the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. Among his many works on Sartre's existentialism, the most notable is the long entry on Sartre, in Gallimard's Histoire de la Philosophie in the Encyclopédie de la Pléïade, France's most prestigious publication series. At UCLA Pucciani pioneered the teaching of courses on Sartre before the philosopher's works were translated into English. He was also a theorist and developer of methods of language acquisition, and in the late 1950s, Pucciani pioneered the "direct method" of language teaching in the UCLA French Department's language program. In 1967 he embodied the results of the department's experience with the direct method in a highly successful and influential textbook, Langue et Langage, coauthored with Jacqueline Hamel. In 1965 the French government recognized Pucciani's dedication to French philosophy, language, and culture with the award of the Knight's Cross of the Legion of Honor. For many years he was the partner of Rudi Gernreich, the noted fashion designer, until his death in 1986.

The collection consists of correspondence, academic files, clipping files and personal ephemera.

This collection has been arranged in the following series:

• Series 1: Personal/professional
• Series 2: Research
• Series 3: Research material
• Series 4: Teaching
• Series 5: Teaching/lectures
• Series 6: Teaching/research
• Series 7: Teaching/lectures off campus
• Series 8: Textbook
• Series 9: Writings
• Sereies 10: Writings/research