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References To Other Books

Direct References

Dago Red

I finished Ask the Dust and looked for other books of Fante’s in the library. I found two: Dago Red and Wait Until Spring, Bandini.

Wait Until Spring, Bandini

I finished Ask the Dust and looked for other books of Fante’s in the library. I found two: Dago Red and Wait Until Spring, Bandini.

Full of Life

There are other books beside Dago Red and Wait Until Spring, Bandini. They are Full of Life and The Brotherhood of the Grape.

The Brotherhood of the Grape

There are other books beside Dago Red and Wait Until Spring, Bandini. They are Full of Life and The Brotherhood of the Grape.

A Dream of Bunker Hill

And, at the moment, Fante has a novel in progress, A Dream of Bunker Hill. Through other circumstances, I finally met the author this year [1979].

Oh, I got a lot of letters, but this was the only beautiful letter, and it came in the morning, and it said (he was talking about The Little Dog Laughed) he had read The Little Dog Laughed and liked it; he said, Mr Bandini, if ever I saw a genius, you are it.

Gideon Bible

I had spoiled them and they went elsewhere, all but Pedro the ascetic who was content to eat the pages of an old Gideon Bible.

The Little Dog Laughed

No wonder there wasn’t a woman in the The Little Dog Laughed. No wonder it wasn’t a love story, you fool, you dirty little schoolboy.

The Anti-Christ

Myself, I am an atheist: I have read The Anti-Christ and I regard it as a capital piece of work.

The Little Dog Laughed

It would impress upon him the fact that I was the selfsame author of The Little Dog Laughed.

Milk Thief

Watch for the story in the Post, I’m calling it ‘Milk Thief’. Leave me your address and I’ll send you all free copies.

The Little Dog Laughed

Eight o’clock, and I was down on Spring Street. I had a copy of The Little Dog Laughed in my pocket. She would think differently about me if she read that story. I had it autographed, right there in my back pocket, ready to present at the slightest notice.

The Little Dog Laughed

Now that the show was over, he disappeared behind the partition. I sat smiling wretchedly, my heart weeping for The Little Dog Laughed, for every well-turned phrase, for the little flecks of poetry through it, my first story, the best thing I could show for my whole life. It was the record of all that was good in me, approved and printed by the great J. C. Hackmuth, and she had torn it up and thrown it into a spittoon.

The Little Dog Laughed

I remember that I walked into the dark lobby carrying two suitcases, one of them filled with copies of The Little Dog Laughed.

The Long Lost Hills

It says: Dear Mr Bandini, With your permission I shall remove the salutation and ending of your long letter and print it as a short story for my magazine. It seems to me you have done a fine job here. I think ‘The Long Lost Hills’ would serve as an excellent title. My cheque is enclosed. ... $175! Arturo Bandini, author of The Little Dog Laughed and The Long Lost Hills.

The Little Dog Laughed

$175! Arturo Bandini, author of The Little Dog Laughed and The Long Lost Hills.

The Long Lost Hills

Back East in New York Hackmuth would just now be entering his office. Somewhere in that office was my manuscript The Long Lost Hills. Love wasn’t everything. Women weren’t everything. A writer had to conserve his energies.

The Little Dog Laughed

I walked to it at once, and pulled out the issue containing The Little Dog Laughed. The priest had seated himself. ‘This is a great magazine,’ I said. ‘The greatest of them all.’

Literary Excerpts on the Walls

They were some excerpts I had typed from Mencken and from Emerson and Whitman.

Poetic Excerpt by Millay

It was Millay, I recognized it at once, and she went on and on; she knew more Millay than Millay herself.

The Little Dog Laughed

Oh Jesus, Arturo, you're marvellous! Maybe you did write The Little Dog Laughed, but you'll never write Casanova’s Memoirs. What are you doing, sitting here? Dreaming of some great masterpiece? Oh you fool, Bandini!

Casanova's Memoirs

The Little Dog Laughed

Arturo Bandini, author of The Little Dog Laughed and a certain plagiarization from Ernest Dowson, and a certain telegram proposing marriage.

The Long Lost Hills

Then my new story hit the magazine stands. The Long Lost Hills! It was not as exciting as The Little Dog Laughed.

The Long Lost Hills

Another magazine wanted The Long Lost Hills in digest form. A hundred dollars. I was rich again.

Coldwater Gatling

It was a short story by Samuel Wiggins, General Delivery, San Juan, California. It was called ‘Coldwater Gatling’, and it began like this: ‘Coldwater Gatling wasn’t looking for trouble but you never can tell about those Arizona rustlers. Pack your cannon high on the hip and lay low when you seen one of them babies. The trouble with trouble was that trouble was looking for Coldwater Gatling. They don’t like Texas Rangers down in Arizona, consequently Coldwater Gatling figured shoot first and find out who you killed afterwards. That’s how they did it in the Lone Star State where men were men and women didn’t mind cooking for hard-riding straight-shooting people like Coldwater Gatling, the toughest man in leather they had down there.’

The Little Dog Laughed

I did not kiss her. She kissed me, author of The Little Dog Laughed. Then she took my wrist with her two hands.

The Long Lost Hills

…and that she had laughed, for which one of them, the boobish swine, the lousy grinning Main Street dopes, which one of them could compose a story like The Long Lost Hills?

Vera Rivken

There was the day I finished the story of Vera Rivken, the breezy days of rewriting it, just coasting along, Hackmuth, a few more days now and you’ll see something great.

The Little Dog Laughed

But it was not the kind of fun I got from seeing The Little Dog Laughed in Hackmuth’s magazine.

Referenced By

No books reference this book

Places Referenced

Cahuenga Pass, Los Angeles, California

"then out Highland over Cahuenga Pass."

Edinburgh, Scotland

"Edinburgh • London • New York • Melbourne"

London, England

"Edinburgh • London • New York • Melbourne"

New York, New York

"Edinburgh • London • New York • Melbourne"

Melbourne, Australia

"Edinburgh • London • New York • Melbourne"

L.A. Public Library, Los Angeles, California

"I did most of my reading at the downtown L.A. Public Library, and nothing that I read related to me or to the streets or to the people about me."

Angel’s Flight, Los Angeles, California

"Yet I liked to guess about where he had lived on Angel’s Flight and I imagined it possible that he still lived there. Almost every day I walked by and I thought, is that the window Camilla crawled through? And, is that the hotel door? Is that the lobby? I never knew."

Los Angeles, California

"One night I was sitting on the bed in my hotel room on Bunker Hill, down in the very middle of Los Angeles."

Fifth and Olive, Los Angeles

"And so I was down on Fifth and Olive, where the big street cars chewed your ears with their noise, and the smell of gasoline made the sight of the palm trees seem sad, and the black pavement still wet from the fog of the night before."

Philharmonic Auditorium, Los Angeles

"Then there was the elevator man, a broken man from Milwaukee, and on down Olive to the Philharmonic Auditorium, and I remembered how I’d gone there with Helen to listen to the Don Cossack Choral Group."

Alta Loma, Los Angeles

"The hotel was called the Alta Loma. It was built on a hillside in reverse, there on the crest of Bunker Hill, built against the decline of the hill, so that the main floor was on the level with the street but the tenth floor was downstairs ten levels."

Church of Our Lady, Los Angeles

"in the Church of Our Lady, and I even went to Mass to look at them."

Colorado, United States

"so that when I wrote home to Colorado to my mother I could write with truth."

West Virginia, United States

"His name was Leonardo, a great Italian critic, only he was not known as a critic, he was just a man in West Virginia, but he was great and he was a critic."

Battle Creek, Michigan

"Mrs Grainger in 345, a Christian Scientist (wonderful hips, but kinda old) from Battle Creek, Michigan, sitting in the lobby waiting to die."

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"Then there was the elevator man, a broken man from Milwaukee, who seemed to sneer every time you called your floor."

Mojave Desert, California

"the palm was blackish at its branches, stained by carbon monoxide coming out of the Third Street Tunnel, its crusted trunk choked with dust and sand that blew in from the Mojave and Santa Ana deserts."

Santa Ana Desert, California

New York, New York

"My agent in New York. He says I sold another one; he doesn’t say where, but he says he’s got one sold."

Plaza, Los Angeles, California

"but down on the Plaza it’s a dollar; swell, only you haven’t got a dollar"

Denver, Colorado

"even if you had a dollar you wouldn’t go, because you had a chance to go once in Denver and you didn’t."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"I climbed out the window and scaled the incline to the top of Bunker Hill."

Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California

"Yes, it’s true: but I have seen houses in Bel-Air with cool lawns and green swimming pools."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"One night I was sitting on the bed in my hotel room on Bunker Hill, down in the very middle of Los Angeles."

Angel's Flight, Los Angeles, California

"Then I walked down the street towards Angel’s Flight, wondering what I would do that day."

Olive Street, Los Angeles, California

"I walked down Olive Street past a dirty yellow apartment house that was still wet like a blotter from last night’s fog, and I thought of my friends Ethie and Carl, who were from Detroit and had lived there..."

Temple Street, Los Angeles, California

"I remembered the time Ross and I got an address from one of them, how he leered salaciously and then took us to Temple Street, of all places, and whom did we see but two very unattractive ones, and Ross went all the way, but I sat in the parlour and played the phonograph and was scared and lonely."

Third Street Tunnel, Los Angeles, California

"Through that window I saw my first palm tree, not six feet away, and sure enough I thought of Palm Sunday and Egypt and Cleopatra, but the palm was blackish at its branches, stained by carbon monoxide coming out of the Third Street Tunnel, its crusted trunk choked with dust and sand."

Grand Central Market, Los Angeles, California

"Dear Mother: I went to Mass last Sunday. Down in the Grand Central Market I bumped into the princesses accidentally on purpose."

Bridgeport, California

"the white-haired landlady kept writing those notes: she was from Bridgeport, Connecticut, her husband had died and she was all alone in the world and she didn’t trust anybody."

Plaza, Los Angeles, California

"I didn’t have one, but the streets were full of them, the Plaza and Chinatown were afire with them."

Sixth Street, San Francisco, California

"I have seen golf clubs on Sixth Street in the Spalding window that make me hungry just to grip them."

Angel's Flight, Los Angeles, California

"I took the steps down Angel’s Flight to Hill Street: a hundred and forty steps"

Hill Street, Los Angeles, California

"I took the steps down Angel’s Flight to Hill Street: a hundred and forty steps"

Third Street Tunnel, Los Angeles, California

"scared of the Third Street Tunnel, scared to walk through it – claustrophobia."

Pasadena, California

"Rich Pasadena girl hates money. Deliberately left Pasadena millions ’cause of ennui, weariness with money."

London, England

"another story, this time to a great magazine in London"

Burbank, California

"Out at Burbank, away out in Burbank. Have to grab a cab and taxi out there"

Los Angeles, California

"The book is based on a true experience which happened to me one night in Los Angeles."

Mexican Quarter, Los Angeles, California

"I walked towards the Mexican Quarter with a feeling of sickness without pain."

Main Street, Los Angeles, California

"Main Street after the show, midnight: neon tubes and a light fog, honky tonks and all night picture houses."

Boulder, Colorado

"…can’t you hear those fellows around the filling station in Boulder, Colorado, can’t you hear them snickering about the great writer caught stealing a quart of milk?"

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"The man who drove the Alden milk route on Bunker Hill was a friend of his."

St Paul Hotel, Los Angeles, California

"When I looked out of my window to the big clock on the St Paul Hotel, it was almost eleven."

Spring Street, Los Angeles, California

"Down on Spring Street, in a bar across the street from the secondhand store."

Grand Central Market, Los Angeles, California

"Maybe I went up to Benny Cohen’s room over the Grand Central Market."

Civic Centre, Los Angeles, California

"When I reached the Civic Centre I realized I had made a bad mistake: the inscription on the story would never impress that kind of a girl."

Main Street alley, Los Angeles, California

"‘But if I were a girl I wouldn’t be seen in a Main Street alley with those shoes.’"

St Paul Hotel, Los Angeles, California

"I remember that night in my room, the lights of the St Paul Hotel throwing red and green blobs across my bed as I lay and shuddered and dreamed of the anger of that girl."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"That night I ate three or four and with the darkness I walked down Bunker Hill to the downtown district."

St Paul Hotel, Los Angeles, California

"Lying in the darkness, the red light from the St Paul Hotel flashing on and off across my bed was bluish now, a ghastly colour jumping into the room and out again."

Mojave Desert, California

"It was a hot night. Sand from the Mojave had blown across the city."

Indiana, United States

"The old folk from Indiana and Iowa and Illinois, from Boston and Kansas City and Des Moines, they sold their homes and their stores"

Iowa, United States

"The old folk from Indiana and Iowa and Illinois, from Boston and Kansas City and Des Moines, they sold their homes and their stores"

Illinois, United States

"The old folk from Indiana and Iowa and Illinois, from Boston and Kansas City and Des Moines, they sold their homes and their stores"

Kansas City, Missouri, United States

"deserted the smug prosperity of Kansas City and Chicago and Peoria"

Peoria, Illinois, United States

"deserted the smug prosperity of Kansas City and Chicago and Peoria"

Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

"Smith and Jones and Parker, druggist, banker, baker, dust of Chicago and Cincinnati and Cleveland on their shoes"

Towne, Los Angeles

"But down on Main Street, down on Towne and San Pedro, and for a mile on lower Fifth Street were the tens of thousands of others;"

Lower Fifth Street, Los Angeles

"and for a mile on lower Fifth Street were the tens of thousands of others;"

Southern California, United States

"They know what Southern California’s like."

Colorado, United States

"when I was a kid back home in Colorado"

Aimee’s Temple, Los Angeles

"their strange gods, out of Aimee’s Temple, out of the Church of the Great I Am."

Church of the Great I Am, Los Angeles

"their strange gods, out of Aimee’s Temple, out of the Church of the Great I Am."

Wyoming, United States

"I had come by bus, dusty to the skin, the dust of Wyoming and Utah and Nevada in my hair and in my ears."

Utah, United States

"I had come by bus, dusty to the skin, the dust of Wyoming and Utah and Nevada in my hair and in my ears."

Nevada, United States

"I had come by bus, dusty to the skin, the dust of Wyoming and Utah and Nevada in my hair and in my ears."

California, United States

"‘Welcome to California!’ she said."

Boston, Massachusetts

"from Boston and Kansas City and Des Moines, they sold their homes and their stores"

China, Asia

"walked down an alley that was the entrance to Chinatown."

Cleveland, Ohio

"dust of Chicago and Cincinnati and Cleveland on their shoes"

Main Street, Los Angeles, California

"But down on Main Street, down on Towne and San Pedro, and for a mile on lower Fifth Street were the tens of thousands of others;"

San Pedro, Los Angeles, California

"But down on Main Street, down on Towne and San Pedro, and for a mile on lower Fifth Street were the tens of thousands of others;"

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"up the dusty stairs of Bunker Hill, past the soot-covered frame buildings along that dark street"

Des Moines, Iowa

"from Boston and Kansas City and Des Moines, they sold their homes and their stores"

Bridgeport, California

"Her husband was dead now, but thirty years ago he had owned a tool shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut."

St Paul Hotel, Los Angeles, California

"watched the blobs of red light from the St Paul Hotel jump in and out of my room"

Alta Loma Hotel, Los Angeles, California

"I am thinking of the Alta Loma Hotel, remembering the people who lived there."

Highland, California

"We drove in moonlight out Wilshire to Highland, then out Highland over Cahuenga Pass."

Boulder, Colorado

"‘Boulder is not in Colorado.’ ‘It is too!’ I said. ‘I just came from there. It was there two days ago.’"

Memphis, Tennessee

"…he reveled in memories of Memphis, Tennessee, where the real people came from, where there were friends and friends."

Fort Worth, Texas

"I got a postcard signed ‘Memphis Kid’ from Fort Worth, Texas."

Moline, Illinois

"He had a wife in Moline, Illinois and a son at the University of Chicago."

Chicago, Illinois

"He had a wife in Moline, Illinois and a son at the University of Chicago."

Spring Street, Los Angeles, California

"We drove him home, down Spring Street to First and over the railroad tracks to a black neighbourhood that picked up the sounds of the rattling Ford and threw the echoes over an area of dirty frame houses and tired picket fences."

First, Los Angeles, California

Western, Los Angeles, California

"Then we got to a major stop-signal at Western and Wilshire."

Wilshire, Los Angeles, California

"Then we got to a major stop-signal at Western and Wilshire."

Beverly Hills, California

"After Beverly Hills there was no fog. The palms along the road stood out green in the bluish darkness, and the white line in the pavement leaped ahead of us like a burning fuse."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"I told her where I lived. ‘Bunker Hill?’ She laughed. ‘It’s a good place for you.’"

Los Angeles, California

"We drove back to Los Angeles. We didn’t speak. She lit a cigarette and looked at me strangely, lips pursed."

New York, New York

"Back East in New York Hackmuth would just now be entering his office."

Olive Street, Los Angeles, California

"I gave him the money and he went down to the butcher shop on Olive Street."

Angel's Flight, Los Angeles, California

"I walked down to the restaurant near Angel’s Flight and ordered the same thing."

Spring Street, Los Angeles, California

"I hurried back to Spring Street and stood in the shadowed doorway waiting for the telegraph boy to appear."

Main Street, Los Angeles, California

"At Sixth I turned the corner and walked down to Main. I wandered through the crowds of seedy, hungry derelicts without destination."

Second Street, Los Angeles, California

"At Second I stopped before a Filipino taxi-dancehall."

Fifth Street, Los Angeles, California

"So down to Main Street and to Fifth Street, to the long dark bars, to the King Edward Cellar."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"I had breakfast and went to a little Catholic Church at the edge of Bunker Hill. The rectory was in back of the frame church."

Duluth, Minnesota

"Why back in Duluth the champagne was twelve bucks a bottle."

Minnesota, United States

"Oh, how lonely she was, from away back in Minnesota."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"It was foggy on Bunker Hill, but not downtown."

Long Beach, California

"One afternoon I tell Mrs Hargraves that I shall be gone for a day or so, Long Beach, some business, and I start out."

Eighth Street, Los Angeles, California

"I walked a mile to a hotdog stand on Eighth Street and had a cup of coffee to kill time."

Olive Street and Second, Los Angeles, California

"She had seen me in the restaurant on the corner of Olive Street and Second."

Electric Station, Los Angeles, California

"Then I go down to the Electric Station and catch a Red Car for Long Beach."

Long Beach Pike, Long Beach, California

"The name on the mailbox was Vera Rivken, and that was her full name. It was down on the Long Beach Pike, across the street from the Ferris Wheel and the Roller Coaster."

Los Angeles, California

"I sat with my teeth gritted, looking at a room like ten million California rooms, a bit of wood here and a bit of rag there, the furniture, with cobwebs in the ceiling and dust in the corners, her room, and everybody’s room, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego, a few boards of plaster and stucco to keep the sun out."

Long Beach, California

San Diego, California

California, United States

"A tidal wave was coming. A tidal wave wasn’t coming. All of California had been struck. Only Long Beach had been struck. Los Angeles was a mass of ruins."

San Francisco, California

"This was the worst quake since San Francisco. This was much worse than the San Francisco quake."

Los Angeles, California

"I got back to Los Angeles the next day. The city was the same, but I was afraid."

Hill Street, Los Angeles, California

"I crossed Hill Street and breathed easier when I entered Pershing Square."

Pershing Square, Los Angeles, California

"I crossed Hill Street and breathed easier when I entered Pershing Square. No tall buildings in the Square."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"I walked up Bunker Hill to my hotel."

Olive Street, Los Angeles, California

"to mail the letter to my mother, to drop it in the box and walk down Olive Street, where there were no brick buildings"

24th and Alameda, Los Angeles, California

"I looked at the car certificate and found her address. It was a place near 24th and Alameda."

Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

"We drove in moonlight out Wilshire to Highland, then out Highland over Cahuenga Pass."

Kansas City, Missouri, United States

"Nostalgically he talked of meat, of the good old steaks you got back in Kansas City, of the wonderful T-bones and tender lamb chops."

Palisades, Santa Monica, California

"In silence we reached the Palisades, driving along the crest of the high cliffs overlooking the sea."

San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, California

"On the other side lay the flat plain of the San Fernando Valley."

Beverly, Los Angeles, California

"On Beverly we shot by a black car moving slowly."

Los Angeles, California

"He had left Los Angeles and gone to the edge of the Santa Ana desert. There he lived in a shack, writing feverishly."

Santa Ana Desert, California

"He had left Los Angeles and gone to the edge of the Santa Ana desert. There he lived in a shack, writing feverishly."

New York, New York

"I could see them, those New York critics, crowding Hackmuth at his club."

Los Angeles, California

"Ah, Los Angeles! Dust and fog of your lonely streets, I am no longer lonely."

Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"Then we reached a section where the traffic was sparse. We were two miles from Bunker Hill, in the east part of town, in the section of factories and breweries."

Main Street, Los Angeles, California

"We drove to a shooting gallery on Main Street."

Terminal Island, Los Angeles, California

"It was about that time that we went to Terminal Island, Camilla and I. A man-made island, that place, a long finger of earth pointing at Catalina."

Catalina Island, California

"A man-made island, that place, a long finger of earth pointing at Catalina."

Los Angeles, California

"I took the bus back to Los Angeles. Making resolutions not to see her again was useless."

Broadway, Los Angeles, California

"We drove down Broadway to Eighth, then south towards Central Avenue."

Eighth Street, Los Angeles, California

"We drove down Broadway to Eighth, then south towards Central Avenue."

Central Avenue, Los Angeles, California

"We drove into the Los Angeles Black Belt, Central Avenue, night clubs, abandoned apartment houses, broken‐down business houses, the forlorn street of poverty for the Negro and swank for the whites."

Club Cuba, Los Angeles, California

"We stopped under the marquee of a night spot called the Club Cuba."

Mojave Desert, California

"It was daylight when we came to a region of canyons and steep gulches, twenty miles in the interior of the Mojave Desert."

Columbia Buffet, Los Angeles, California

"Six hours later she woke me to tell me that it was two o’clock, and that we had to start back. She was due at the Columbia Buffet at seven."

Alta Loma Hotel, Los Angeles, California

"Even when she let me out at the Alta Loma Hotel, even then we did not speak, but she smiled her thanks and I smiled my sympathy, and she drove away."

Temple Street, Los Angeles, California

"We drove to her place on Temple Street. It was a sick building, a frame place diseased and dying from the sun."

Temple Street, Los Angeles, California

"I took one cab and rode to Camilla’s place on Temple Street."

Broadway and Temple, Los Angeles, California

"On the corner of Broadway and Temple I saw a cab parked."

Alta Loma Hotel, Los Angeles, California

"You warmongers, you old folks in the lobby of the Alta Loma Hotel, here is the news, here: this little paper with all the fancy legal writing, my book!"

County Hospital, Los Angeles, California

"I took the street car to the County Hospital. The nurse in the reception room checked a card file when I mentioned the name of Camilla Lopez."

Hill Street and Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California

"Then I took the street car back to Hill Street and Bunker Hill."

Santa Monica, California

"One night I came upon the place at Santa Monica where Camilla and I had gone swimming in those first days."

Ventura, California

"I took long rides along the blue coastline, up to Ventura, up to Santa Barbara, down to San Clemente, down to San Diego, following the white line of the pavement."

Santa Barbara, California

"I took long rides along the blue coastline, up to Ventura, up to Santa Barbara, down to San Clemente, down to San Diego, following the white line of the pavement."

San Clemente, California

"I took long rides along the blue coastline, up to Ventura, up to Santa Barbara, down to San Clemente, down to San Diego, following the white line of the pavement."

San Diego, California

"I took long rides along the blue coastline, up to Ventura, up to Santa Barbara, down to San Clemente, down to San Diego, following the white line of the pavement."

Los Angeles, California

"Local police today were on the lookout for Camilla Lopez, 22, of Los Angeles, whose disappearance from the Del Maria institution was discovered by authorities last night."

San Francisco, California

"The next morning I got the first of her collect telegrams. It was a request for money to be wired to Rita Gomez, care of Western Union, San Francisco."

Del Maria, California

"From a drugstore downtown I called long distance and got the switchboard at County Institute for the Insane at Del Maria."

Santa Ana, California

"Over the city spread a white murkiness like fog. But it was not the fog: it was the desert heat, the great blasts from the Mojave and Santa Ana, the pale white fingers of the wasteland, ever reaching out to claim its captured child."

Mojave Desert, California

Los Angeles, California

"She couldn’t stay in Los Angeles. She needed rest, a chance to eat and sleep, drink a lot of milk and take long walks."

Laguna Beach, California

"Laguna Beach! That was the place for her."

Crenshaw, Los Angeles, California

"I drove through town and out Crenshaw, and from there to Long Beach Boulevard."

Long Beach Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

"I drove through town and out Crenshaw, and from there to Long Beach Boulevard."

Maywood, California

"In Maywood we stopped at a roadside café for breakfast."

Long Beach, California

"A couple of miles outside of Long Beach we came upon a dog farm."

Balboa Shore, Newport Beach, California

"We could go swimming and take long walks along the Balboa shore."

San Juan, Puerto Rico

"It was a short story by Samuel Wiggins, General Delivery, San Juan, California."

Fresno, California, United States

"The second wire came from Fresno."

Mojave Desert, California

"I filled the tank with gasoline, threw a copy of my book in the front seat, and started for Sammy’s abode in the Mojave Desert."

Los Angeles, California

"Then I got into the car, started the engine, and drove back to Los Angeles."

Denver, Colorado

"Born in Denver on 8 April 1909, John Fante migrated to Los Angeles in his early twenties."

Los Angeles, California

"John Fante migrated to Los Angeles in his early twenties."

Los Angeles, California

"He was posthumously recognised in 1987 with a Lifetime Achievement Award by PEN, Los Angeles four years after his death from diabetes-related complications."

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California

"‘The universe of John Fante’s fiction is so immediately moving, so poetically vivid, that it’s hard to decide which is the greater quandary: that it went so long unrecognised, or that in the factitious worlds of publishing and Hollywood it’s receiving such enormous recognition today.’ The Boston Review"