Some 35 years ago, Charles Bukowski wrote, “Fante was my god”—and with those four words, he brought John Fante and his great books back out of near-obscurity. The quote is from the preface Bukowski wrote for the 1980 Black Sparrow Press reissue of Fante's 1939 novel Ask the Dust, his semi-autobiographical masterpiece of loneliness and Los Angeles, optimism and passion in the face of destitution and abandon. Bukowski's work owed a debt to Fante, but in bringing Fante back and—with the help of Black Sparrow's John Martin—getting Fante's work back into print, Bukowski gave a generous gift to the literary world at large. Fante died just three years after his return to the limelight, but thanks to Buk, many of Fante's works—including five novels and a short fiction collection (as well as five posthumously released books of fiction ... [more John Fante: The Spirit of Los Angeles]
Blog posts by Scott Silsbe
Scott Silsbe was born in Detroit and now lives in Pittsburgh. Fourteen years ago, while attending the University of Pittsburgh for an MFA in Creative Writing, he began working for ABAA member Caliban Bookshop. He is currently Caliban's warehouse manager. He is also the author of two poetry collections: Unattended Fire (Six Gallery Press, 2012) and The River Underneath the City (Low Ghost Press, 2013).