12 Facts About John Fante

John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.

John Fante 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.

John Fante was born in Denver, Colorado, on April 8,1909, to Nicola John Fante from Torricella Peligna, and Mary Capolungo, a devout Catholic of Lucanian descent who was born in Chicago, Illinois.

Nicola John Fante was a bricklayer and stonemason, who drank and gambled to excess, leaving the John Fante family to experience bouts of poverty.

John Fante attended various Catholic schools including Regis High School, before briefly enrolling at the University of Colorado.

John Fante co-wrote Walk on the Wild Side, which stars Jane Fonda in her second credited film role, based on the novel by Nelson Algren.

John 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.

John 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.

Neil Gordon suggests John Fante's works exude a "profound urge to realize an artistic talent and an equally profound anxiety about recognition in the literary market".

In 1987, John Fante was posthumously awarded the PEN USA President's Award.

John Fante Square is located near the old Bunker Hill neighborhood he wrote about, and where he lived.

On January 18,2001, the play 1933 by Randal Myler and Brockman Seawell, based on John Fante's novel 1933 Was a Bad Year, premiered at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.