LA names corner after literary icon John Fante

City of Los Angeles officials this week named the corner of Fifth Street and Grand Avenue in downtown L.A. “John Fante Square” in tribute to the mid 20th century writer who's becoming a literary icon.

John Fante’s seminal novel "Ask The Dust" takes place mostly around the Bunker Hill flophouses, bars and restaurants that leaned on each other on these steep hills 80 years ago. Critics hail the novel as an eloquent portrait of Los Angeles. Fante channels his youthful passion about L.A. through the novel’s narrator, Arturo Bandini: "Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town."

Fante’s three adult children, fans, and academics attended the unveiling and took a walking tour of the much-changed Bunker Hill. “He knew in his heart that he was a great writer,” said son Jim Fante, “and that someday he would be recognized for it. Unfortunately he died mostly unrecognized. We can only hope that he knows what’s going on now.”

John Fante Square from 89.3 KPCC on Vimeo.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

The group of Fante fans breathed in the view of downtown L.A. at the top of the recently reopened Angel’s Flight railway. Its 3rd Street location is one block south from where the rail cars clackety-clacked in Fante’s day.

In the early 1930s, CSU Long Beach English Professor Stephen Cooper said, the young Fante lived a block from here, across the street from what’s now the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

“It was there, in the Alta Vista Hotel, dilapidated Victorian Mansion that had turned into a rooming house that he wrote some of his earliest stories and it was the heart of Los Angeles that stayed with him throughout his life and career,” Cooper said.

Fante wrote half a dozen, mostly autobiographical novels. By middle age he was channeling most of his creativity to television and film screenplays. He derided that work.

The Italians have taken the lead on Fante tributes. For five years — Torricella Peligna, the birthplace of Fante’s father — has hosted a literary festival to honor Fante’s work. Fante’s daughter, Vickie Fante Cohen, said the time may now be right for L.A. tributes.

“Last year was dad’s 100th birthday, UCLA acquired the literary papers. John Fante’s name is getting out there. And understand how important he is in the culture and history of Los Angeles.”