Dan Fante

This is a big night for John Fante, and for his son, Dan, who is proud of the old man, even if he doesn't often say so. Dan needs to be in the right mood to speak well of John, and tonight you can see in his smile, he's in the right mood. Tonight Dan is setting aside the bad memories, the sorrow and rage and resentment over John, for a few hours. For as long as any son can set aside such things. Many consider Dan's father the best novelist Los Angeles has ever produced.

As the trustees of the John Fante estate, we are deeply troubled by the many misrepresentations in J.R. Moehringer's article ("Where Father Ends and Son Begins," The Generations Issue, April 30). Our primary concern pertains to the depiction of our father, John Fante, as a raging alcoholic. He was not an alcoholic, nor was he raging. He did drink on occasion and was somewhat moody at times, but the depiction of him in the article is pure fiction and is simply wrong. He has an active and flourishing literary career 23 years after his death, and to taint his image erroneously is irresponsible journalism.