New York: Ecco, 2002. Item #1508

8vo. 225 x 150 mm., [9 x 6 inches]. 167 pp. With one black and white photograph of the author at the end of the book. Publishers’ softcover wrapper. Book is As New: a seemingly unread copy.

First Ecco Edition. John Fante (1909-1983) was an American novelist and screenwriter. Ask the Dust, originally published in 1939, is his best-known work and the third chronologically in his Arturo Bandini series which begins with Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938), is followed by The Road to Los Angeles, which was written in 1936 but published posthumously in 1985, and concludes with  Dreams of Bunker Hill (1982). The novel is semi-autobiographical and follows a young writer struggling to survive in Depression-era Los Angeles. Though it was released to mixed-reviews in the late 1930s it has since become known as a classic of modern American literature. This 2002 edition features a preface by Charles Bukowski, which first appeared in the 1980 Black Sparrow Press edition, in which he cites Fonte as a “lifetime influence on my writing.”

Price: $45.00