Auteur: James J. Periconi

Francesco Durante born in Anacapri, teaches the Culture and Literature of Italian Americans at the Università Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples. As one of Italy’s foremost journalists and literary critics, he has written for various Italian newspapers and journals. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including the groundbreaking Italoamericana. Storia e letteratura degli italiani negli Stati Uniti, 1776–1943, in two volumes (the second was published with the same title by Fordham University Press in 2014); Figli di due mondi. Fante, Di Donato & C: narratori italoamericani degli anni Trenta e Quaranta; Scuorno (vergogna); I napoletani; and, together with the late Rudolph J. Vecoli, Oh Capitano! La vita favolosa di Celso Cesare Moreno in quattro continenti. He has edited two volumes of Mondadori’s prestigious Meridiani series on John Fante and Domenico Rea. In addition to various editions of mannerist and baroque poets and American writers, he has translated seven volumes of John Fante, two by Bret Easton Ellis, and other writers such as William Somerset Maugham, George Arnold, and William Dean Howells. Durante is the artistic director of the annual Salerno Literary Festival. His latest book is La letteratura italoamericana (2017).