Product Code Database
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 novel Ask the Dust (1939) about the life of Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Depression-era Los Angeles. It is widely considered the great Los Angeles novel, and is one in a series of four, published between 1938 and 1985, that are now collectively called "The Bandini Quartet." Ask the Dust was adapted into a 2006 film starring Colin Farrell and Salma 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 films Walk on the Wild Side and The Reluctant Saint.
Fante and Joyce Smart met on January 30, 1937, and were married on July 31 of that same year in Reno, Nevada.Stephen Cooper, Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante, New York: North Point Press, 2000, pp. 142-45.
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(1938), The Road to Los Angeles (chronologically second in the saga, this is the first novel Fante wrote, but it was unpublished until 1985), Ask the Dust (1939) and finally Dreams from Bunker Hill (1982), which was dictated to his wife, Joyce, “from his hospital bed.”Tyler Kane, "The 8 Best Quotes from John Fante's Ask the Dust," Paste, April 8, 2015.
His short story collection, Dago Red, was originally published in 1940, and then republished with a few additional stories in 1985 under the title The Wine of Youth.
Starting in the 1950s, Fante made a living primarily as a screenwriter, building a lucrative career writing mostly unproduced screenplays. According to a local historian, “He wrote movie scripts with drinking partner William Faulkner in the 1940s, and was still active in the studios in the 1950s and 1960s.”
Fante's screenwriting credits include the comedy-drama Full of Life (1957), based on his 1952 novel of the same name, which starred Judy Holliday and Richard Conte, and was nominated for Best Written American Comedy at the 1957 WGA Awards. WGA Awards (Screen), 1957 at the Internet Movie Database He also co-wrote Walk on the Wild Side (1962), which stars Jane Fonda in her second credited film role, based on the novel by Nelson Algren. His other screenplay credits include Dinky, Jeanne Eagels, My Man and I, The Reluctant Saint, Something for a Lonely Man, and Six Loves. 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 1970s, 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.Gardaphe, Fred L. (2001), "John Fante (1909-1983)", in Gelfant, Blanche H., The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story, New York: Columbia University PressAdam Kirsch, "Smashed," The New Yorker, March 14, 2005.
Fante and Joyce raised four children in Malibu, California, "Joyce Smart Fante," Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2005. including Dan Fante, an author and playwright who died in 2015.Ben Myers, "Dan Fante: underground writer expressed madness of the US workplace," The Guardian, May 25, 2015.
Fante's work and style have influenced Charles Bukowski, who stated in his introduction to Ask the Dust that "Fante was my god".Fante, J 1980, Ask The Dust, Black Sparrow Press, Santa Barbara. Introduction by Charles Bukowski. 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.Allen Barra, "Who was John Fante?" Salon, March 10, 2006. In his 1978 novel Women, Bukowski's alter ego Henry Chinaski is asked to name his favorite author; he replies, "Fante."
Fante wrote about writing, about people he knew, and about places where he lived and worked, which included Wilmington, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, the Bunker Hill district of downtown Los Angeles Hollywood, Echo Park and Malibu. Recurring themes in Fante's work are poverty, Catholicism, family, 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". 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". 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-smoking Brick hod.
In 1987, Fante was posthumously awarded the PEN USA President's Award.Melonie Magruder, "Obscure Malibu novelist John Fante celebrated," The Malibu Times, June 3, 2009.
On October 13, 2009, Los Angeles City Council member Jan 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 the Los Angeles Central Library frequented by the young Fante, and where Charles Bukowski discovered Ask 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.Richard Schave, "Naming of John Fante Square" , Los Angeles Visionaries Association.Matt Shoard, "Discovering John Fante," The Guardian, April 8, 2010.
On January 18, 2001, the play 1933 by Randal Myler and Brockman Seawell, based on Fante's novel 1933 Was a Bad Year, premiered at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.Kenneth Jones, "1933, Tale of a Baseball Dreamer, Premieres in Denver Jan. 18-March 3," Playbill, January 18, 2001.
|
|
