In 1980 Black Sparrow Press reissued John Fante's long-out-of-print 1939 novel, Ask the Dust, initiating a process that would lead in the next eleven years to the reissue of nearly all Fante's work. Only a few of his magazine stories have not been reprinted. The effect of this ambitious publishing enterprise has been the rescue from almost total oblivion of the works of one of the most engaging talents in American literature. The eleven-volume set from Black Sparrow comprises seven short novels (two of which were published for the first time), a story collection (combining his 1940 collection, Dago Red, with seven additional stories), a volume including two novellas (in print for the first time), and two collections of letters, one documenting his long correspondence with H. L. Mencken. As each new volume reached the bookstores, the circle of Fante admirers widened. The Black Sparrow editions of his books have been selling widely, and in translation his works have reached audiences in France, Belgium, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Spain.
