After many unsuccessful attempts at publishing stories in the highly regarded literary magazine "The American Mercury", his short story "Altar Boy" was accepted conditionally by the magazine's editor, H. L. Mencken. With Mencken's help, in 1938 Fante published his first novel, "Wait Until Spring, Bandini". The following year, his best known novel, the semi-autobiographical "Ask the Dust", appeared. Bandini served as his alter ego in a total of four novels, often known as "The Bandini Quartet": "Wait Until Spring, Bandini" (1938), "The Road to Los Angeles" (chronologically second in the saga, this is the first novel Fante wrote, but it was unpublished until 1985), "Ask the Dust" (1939) and finally "Dreams from Bunker Hill" (1982), which was dictated to his wife, Joyce, towards the end of his life. His short story collection, "Dago Red", was originally published in 1940, and then republished with a few additional stories in 1985 under the title "The Wine of Youth".