He was a victim of diabetes, which had resulted in blindness and the amputation of both legs. He did live to see the Black Sparrow republication of
Ask the Dust, and perhaps it was this event that buoyed him to write one final novel, the exuberant
Dreams from Bunker Hill , dictated to his wife, Joyce, at their Malibu house and from his hospital bed. In the years following his death, Joyce Fante aided Black Sparrow in gathering his previously unpublished works, including his first novel,
The Road to Los Angeles (1985, completed around 1933); the novellas
1933 Was a Bad Year, "My Dog Stupid," and "The Orgy" (the latter two paired in
West of Rome); and the two collections of letters.
John Fante was born in Denver, Colorado, on 8 April 1909 and was the oldest of the four children of Nicholas Peter Fante and Mary Capolungo Fante. His father, a stonemason and bricklayer, was born in Torricella Peligna, Abruzzi, Italy; his mother was a Chicago-born Italian American. When John was young, the family moved to nearby Boulder, where his father worked in the building industry and John attended parochial schools. He was a good student with a propensity for writing and a keen interest in baseball; both activities were encouraged by the nuns.
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