Biography

8 april 1909 - John Fante was born in Denver, Colorado, from a family of Italian immigrants. His father Nick Fante, originary from Torricella Peligna, was a mason; his mother Maria Capolungo was born in Chicago also from Italian parents. His childhood was very poor.
John spent his early years in Boulder, attending a Catholic school and later a college in the University of Colorado.
1932 - he moved to Los Angeles where he had a number of different jobs. The American Mercury published one of his stories.
1937 - he married Joyce Smart, who would bear him four children. He started working as a scriptwriter for Hollywood.
1938 - Fante published his first novel, 'Wait Until Spring, Bandini'
1939 - 'Ask The Dust' appeared
1940 - Dago Red, a collection of short stories, was published.
1952 - "Full of Life" appeared and the script from it received an Oscar nomination.
1955 - he fell ill with diabetes
1957 - he came to Italy and worked as scriptwriter for Dino De Laurentiis.
1977 - he became blind because of diabetes and in the following years also lost his legs; his last novel "Dreams from Bunker Hill" was dictated to his wife
8 may 1983 - John Fante died at 74, leaving many unpublished works. In the last few years he has been widely recognized as an outstanding 20th century novelist on an international level.

For more in-depth biographical details, see John Fante's official biography by Stephen Cooper, Full of Life