John fante – wikipedia

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John Fante April 8, — May 8, was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel Ask the Dust about the life of Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Depression-era Los Angeles. It is widely considered the great Los Angeles novel, [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and is one in a series of four, published between and , that are now collectively called "The Bandini Quartet.

Fante's published works while he lived included five novels, one novella, and a short story collection. Additional works, including two novels, two novellas, and two short story collections, were published posthumously. His screenwriting credits include, most notably, Full of Life , based on his novel by that name , Jeanne Eagels , and the films Walk on the Wild Side and The Reluctant Saint.

After many unsuccessful attempts at publishing stories in the highly regarded literary magazine The American Mercury , his short story "Altar Boy" was accepted conditionally by the magazine's editor, H. His short story collection, Dago Red , was originally published in , and then republished with a few additional stories in under the title The Wine of Youth.

Starting in the s, Fante made a living primarily as a screenwriter, [ 10 ] building a lucrative career writing mostly unproduced screenplays. As Fante himself often admitted, most of what he wrote for the screen was simply hackwork intended to bring in a paycheck. In the late s, at the suggestion of novelist and poet Charles Bukowski , who had accidentally discovered Fante's work in the Los Angeles Public Library, Black Sparrow Press began to republish the then out-of-print works of Fante, creating a resurgence in his popularity.