"Fante, John - Saga of Arturo Bandini 01 - The Road to Los Angeles 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fante John)

ROAD TO LOS ANGELES

John Fante Introduced by John King

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First published in the United States of America in 1985 by Black Sparrow Press

This edition first published in Great Britain in 2000 by

Rebel Inc, an imprint of

Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street,

Edinburgh EH 1 1TE

This edition first pirated on the Internet by Zerodaze 2003 OMGLOL!"г$%

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10 9 8 76543 21 Copyright й Joyce Fante, 1985

Introduction copyright й John King, 2000

All rights reserved Rebel Inc series editor: Kevin Williamson

www.rebelinc.net.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available on

request from the British Library

ISBN 1 84195 049 1

Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production,

Polmont, Stirlingshire Printed and bound by Omnia Books Ltd,

Bishopbriggs, Glasgow

EDITORIAL NOTE

In 1933, John Fante was living in an attic apartment in Long Beach and working on his first novel, The Road to Los Angeles. "I have seven months and 450 bucks to write my novel with. This is pretty swell in my opinion," Fante wrote in a letter to Carey McWilliams dated February 23,1933. Fante had signed a contract with Knopf and received an advance. However, Fante didn't finish the novel in seven months. Sometime during 1936, he reworked the first 100 pages, shortening the book somewhat, and completed the novel. In an undated letter (c. 1936) to McWilliams, Fante writes, " The Road to Los Angeles is finished and boy! I'm pleased ... I hope to mail it on Friday. Some of the stuff will singe the hair off a wolf's rear. It may be too strong; i.e., lacking in 'good' taste. But that doesn't bother me." The novel was never published, probably because the subject matter was considered too provocative in the mid-1930s.

This novel introduces Fante's alter ego Arturo Bandini who reappears in Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938), Ask the Dust (1939), and Dreams from Bunker Hill (1982). The manuscript was discovered among John Fante's papers after his death in May, 1983, by his widow Joyce, and now may be included in that short, distinguished list of important first novels by American authors.

Introduction