John Fante | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1909-04-08)April 8, 1909 Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
| Died | May 8, 1983(1983-05-08) (aged 74) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Occupation | |
| Period | 1936–82 |
| Literary movement | Dirty realism |
| Notable works | Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938) Ask the Dust (1939) Full of Life (1952) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingDan Fante |
John Fante (April 8, 1909 – May 8, 1983) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novelAsk the Dust (1939) about the life of Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Depression-eraLos Angeles. It is widely considered the great Los Angeles novel,[1][2] and is one in a series of four, published between 1938 and 1985, that are now collectively called "The Bandini Quartet."Ask the Dust wasadapted into a 2006 film starringColin Farrell andSalma Hayek. 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 (1956, based on his 1952 novel by that name),Jeanne Eagels (1957), and the 1962 filmsWalk on the Wild Side andThe Reluctant Saint.
Fante was born inDenver, Colorado, on April 8, 1909,[3] to Nicola Fante fromTorricella Peligna (Abruzzo), and Mary Capolungo, a devout Catholic ofLucanian descent who was born in Chicago, Illinois.[4] Nicola Fante was a bricklayer and stonemason, who drank and gambled to excess, leaving the Fante family to experience bouts of poverty.[4] Fante attended various Catholic schools includingRegis High School,[5] before briefly enrolling at theUniversity of Colorado.[3] He dropped out of college in 1929 and “hitchhiked to Los Angeles at age 24”[6] to focus on his writing.
Fante and Joyce Smart met on January 30, 1937, and were married on July 31 of that same year inReno, Nevada.[7]
After many unsuccessful attempts at publishing stories in the highly regarded literary magazineThe American Mercury, his short story "Altar Boy" was accepted conditionally by the magazine's editor,H. L. Mencken.[3] With Mencken's help, in 1938 Fante published his first novel,Wait Until Spring, Bandini.[8] The following year, his best known novel, the semi-autobiographicalAsk the Dust, appeared.[8] “Much of the book focuses onMain Street andPershing Square” in downtown Los Angeles, natural habitat of the “poor Los Angeles poet” who was the novel’s protagonist.[6]
Bandini served as his alter ego in a total of four novels, often known as "The Bandini Quartet":Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938),The Road to Los Angeles (chronologically second in the saga, this is the first novel Fante wrote, but it was unpublished until 1985),Ask the Dust (1939) and finallyDreams from Bunker Hill (1982), which was dictated to his wife, Joyce, “from his hospital bed.”[9][6]
His short story collection,Dago Red, was originally published in 1940, and then republished with a few additional stories in 1985 under the titleThe Wine of Youth.
Starting in the 1950s, Fante made a living primarily as a screenwriter,[10] building a lucrative career writing mostly unproduced screenplays.[8] According to a local historian, “He wrote movie scripts with drinking partnerWilliam Faulkner in the 1940s, and was still active in the studios in the 1950s and 1960s.”[6]
Fante's screenwriting credits include the comedy-dramaFull of Life (1957), based on his 1952 novel of the same name, which starredJudy Holliday andRichard Conte, and was nominated for Best Written American Comedy at the 1957WGA Awards.[11] He also co-wroteWalk on the Wild Side (1962), which starsJane Fonda in her second credited film role, based on the novel byNelson Algren.[10] His other screenplay credits includeDinky,Jeanne Eagels,My Man and I,The Reluctant Saint,Something for a Lonely Man, andSix Loves. As Fante himself often admitted, most of what he wrote for the screen was simply hackwork intended to bring in a paycheck.[citation needed]
In the late 1970s, at the suggestion of novelist and poetCharles 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.[3][12][13]
Fante was diagnosed with diabetes in 1955, which ultimately cost him his eyesight and led to the 1977 amputation of his toes and feet, and later legs.[10][8] He died on May 8, 1983.[14]
Fante and Joyce raised four children inMalibu, California,[8][15] includingDan Fante, an author and playwright who died in 2015.[16]
He is one of the first to portray the tough times of writers in Los Angeles and has been referred to as "the quintessential L.A. novelist."[10] He has also been cited as a precursor toBeat writers.[10]Robert Towne has calledAsk the Dust the greatest novel ever written about Los Angeles.[2]Michael Tolkin said the novel should be "mandatory reading" in the Los Angeles school system.[10] More than 60 years after it was published,Ask the Dust appeared for several weeks on theNew York Times' Best Sellers List.[citation needed]
Fante's work and style have influencedCharles Bukowski, who stated in his introduction toAsk the Dust that "Fante was my god".[17] Bukowski dedicated poems to Fante, and in the early part of his career was said to go around shouting, "I am Arturo Bandini!" in reference to Fante's alter ego.[10] In his 1978 novelWomen, Bukowski's alter egoHenry Chinaski is asked to name his favorite author; he replies, "Fante."[8]
Fante wrote about writing, about people he knew, and about places where he lived and worked, which includedWilmington,Long Beach,Manhattan Beach, theBunker Hill district of downtown Los AngelesHollywood,Echo Park andMalibu. Recurring themes in Fante's work arepoverty,Catholicism,family life,Italian-American identity, sports, and racism. Kristopher Cook proposes a concentration on themes of "existentialism; philosophy – finding the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal concern".[18] Neil Gordon suggests Fante's works exude a "profound urge to realize an artistic talent and an equally profound anxiety about recognition in the literary market".[19] Fante's clear voice, vivid characters, shoot-from-the-hip style, and painful, emotional honesty blended with humor and scrupulous self-criticism give his books wide appreciation. Most of his novels and stories take place in Colorado or California. Some of his novels and short stories feature or focus on fictional incarnations of Fante's father, Nicola Fante, as a cantankerous, wine tippling, cigar stub-smokingbricklayer.
In 1987, Fante was posthumously awarded thePEN USA President's Award.[20]
On October 13, 2009,Los Angeles City Council memberJan Perry put forward a motion, seconded by Jose Huizar, that the intersection of Fifth Street and Grand Avenue be designated John Fante Square. The site is outside theLos Angeles Central Library frequented by the young Fante, and whereCharles Bukowski discoveredAsk The Dust. On April 8, 2010, the author's 101st birthday, the Fante Square sign was unveiled in a noon ceremony attended by Fante's family, fans and city officials. Fante Square is located near the old Bunker Hill neighborhood he wrote about, and where he also lived.[21][22]
Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights toThe Brotherhood of the Grape, but a film was not produced.[10][23]Dominique Deruddere directed the movie version ofWait Until Spring, Bandini, which was released in 1989.[10][24] In March 2006,Paramount Pictures releasedAsk the Dust, directed byRobert Towne and starringColin Farrell,Salma Hayek andDonald Sutherland.[25] In December 2006, a 2001 documentary film about Fante,A Sad Flower in the Sand (directed by Jan Louter), aired on thePBS seriesIndependent Lens.[26]Yvan Attal directed and starred in the French filmMy Dog Stupid (Mon chien Stupide), released in October 2019, based on the story of the same name inWest of Rome.[27]
On January 18, 2001, the play1933 by Randal Myler andBrockman Seawell, based on Fante's novel1933 Was a Bad Year, premiered at theDenver Center for the Performing Arts.[28]
Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938), his first novel, began the saga of Arturo Bandini, a character whose story continues in The Road to Los Angeles, Ask the Dust and Dreams from Bunker Hill - collectively known as The Bandini Quartet.
