ASK THE DUST

New York, NY: Stackpole Sons, 1939. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 235 pages. In Good condition with a Good minus condition dust jacket. Grey spine with white lettering. Dust jacket is wrapped in a mylar covering, price is uncut "$2.00", has mild shelving wear, stains on the rear cover, moderate chipping along the extremities, large open tears along the head edges and spine tail edge, small open tears along the fore edges and corners, and mild age-toning throughout. Boards have mild wear along the extremities, moderate age-toning along the head and tail edges, stains on the rear cover, and light bumping on the front tail fore corner. Textblock has splitting to gutter from the title page to page 62, a "berger's book mart..." bookplate on the copyright page, a "Propriedad De..." bookplate on the front end-page, stains on the end-pages and pastedowns, mild wear along the edges, moderate age-toning along the edges, and stains along the edges. DL consignment. Shelved Room C. John Fante was born April 8, 1909 in Denver, Colorado to parents of Italian descent. He would drop out of college in 1929 and hitchhiked to LA to focus on writing. After several unsuccessful attempts to publish stories in the literary magazine "The American Mercury", Fante found success with "The Altar Boy". This opened further avenues for Fante, who got his first novel "Wait Until Spring Bandini" published in 1938, the year before his most popular novel, the semi-autobiographical "Ask the Dust".

Upon release "Ask the Dust" received mixed reviews, resulting in poor sales. It has since come to be known as one of the best novels about LA, and one of the first to truly depict the difficulties suffered during the Great Depression in LA. 1388859. Special Collections. (Inventory #: 1388859)