The John Fante Reader
John Fante began writing in 1929 and published his first short story in 1932. His first novel,Wait Until Spring, Bandini, was published in 1938 and was the first of his Arturo Bandini series of novels, which also includeThe Road to Los AngelesandAsk the Dust. A prolific screenwriter, he was stricken with diabetes in 1955. Complications from the disease brought about his blindness in 1978 and, within two years, the amputation of both legs. He continued to write by dictation to his wife, Joyce, and publishedDreams from Bunker Hill, the final installment of the Arturo Bandini series, in 1982. He died on May 8, 1983, at the age of seventy-four.Stephen Cooper is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the author ofFull of Life: A Biography of John Fante.While researching Fante's life he discovered and edited the manuscript for Fante's last book,The Big Hunger.He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two children.