SOURCE: Collins, Richard. “The Legacy of John Fante.” In John Fante: A Literary Portrait, pp. 261-73. Toronto: Guernica, 2000.

In the following essay, Collins addresses the reasons for the recent critical and popular rediscovery of John Fante's work, investigates the influence his work has had on other writers, and places him within the tradition of Italian American writers.

To feel that you have a destiny is a nuisance.

—John Fante

In 1932 H. L. Mencken published the first story of an unknown writer living in obscurity in Los Angeles named John Fante, the son of a bricklayer from the Abruzzi. Half a century later the author of “Altar Boy” had to be rediscovered by Charles Bukowski. Bukowski's preface to the 1980 reissue of Ask the Dust deserves credit for kick-starting the Fante revival. Recalling his own anonymous days in Los Angeles, Bukowski felt dissatisfied with the “very slick and careful Word-Culture...