An Annotated Bibliography of Italian American Studies

Non-Fiction and Autobiographies

Page 25: from Panella to Vitiello

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Panella, Vincent. The Other Side: Growing up Italian in America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979.

[From his boyhood in Queens, where he learns to be ashamed of his culture, to a trip to Italy, where he recaptures his love of life Italian, Panella creates a candid portrait of immigrant culture from a third-generation perspective. Illustrated with photos by his wife, Susan Sichel.]

 

Pellegrini, Angelo. Americans by Choice. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956.

[Sketches of six Italian immigrants who moved to various parts of the United States.]

 

---. American Dream: an Immigrant’s Quest. Berkeley, CA: North Point Press, 1986.

[A look back from age 83 on how the pursuit of the "American Dream" affected his immigrant family and his assimilation from Italian laborer to American intellectual.]

 

Petrone, Penny. Breaking the Mould. Toronto: Guernica Editions, 1995.

[Petrone, a noted authority on Canadian Indian cultures, narrates what it was like growing up in Northern Ontario as the daughter of parents who came to Canada from the class-bound, feudal society of Southern Italy during the 1920s.]

 

Puzo, Mario. The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions. New York: Fawcett, 1972.

[A telling collection of autobiographical essays and literary and journalistic articles by the best-selling author of The Godfather who has for many years refused interviews.]

 

Scammacca, Nat. Bye Bye America: Memories of a Sicilian-american. Cross-Cultural Communications, 1986.

[Short autobiographical narratives which recount the author’s youth in New York, his military service in World War II and his experience return to live in Trapani, Sicily.]

 

Segale, Sister Blandina. At the End of the Santa Fe Trail. Milwaukee, WI: Bruce Publishers, 1948.

[The memoirs of a missionary nun who traveled west and encountered Billy the Kid in her introduction to American life and in fulfillment of her dream to serve God in America.]

 

Siciliano, Vincent. Unless They Kill Me First. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1970.

[A personal account of life in the underworld of organized crime.]

 

Siringo, Charles A. A Texas Cowboy. 1885. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1979.

[A chronicle of the experiences of this Italian-American cowboy. One of the first classics about the Old West.]

 

Sorrentino, Joseph. Up from Never. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971.

[The story of a child of immigrants who grew up to become a judge.]

 

Talese, Gay. Fame and Obscurity. New York: World Publishing, 1970.

[A collection of some of his earliest writings that earned him New Journalism pioneer status.]

 

---. Honor Thy Father. New York: World Publishing, 1971.

[Talese experiences life with the Mafia through Bill Bonanno, a New York Family heir-apparent.]

 

----. Unto the Sons. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

[Ten years of research and writing and three trips to Italy have enabled this co-developer of American New Journalism to weave the fabric of his autobiography from birth to early adulthood with threads of oral tradition, interviews, history, and myth.]

 

Tonelli, Bill. The Amazing Story of the Tonelli Family in America. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1994.

[Esquire senior editor Bill Tonelli, a third-generation Italian American, takes off in a rented Buick out of South Philly in search of Americans who share his last name. His inspiration and direction are supplied by a piece of junkmail.]

 

Torgovnick, Marianna De Marco. Crossing Ocean Parkway: Readings by an Italian-american Daughter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

[Nourished by stories in the oral tradition of her immigrant ancestors, Marianna DeMarco Torgovnick documents and examines her personal and professional journey towards American assimilation through eight essays (personal and critical) and an epilogue.]

 

Vergara, Joseph. Love and Pasta. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.

[A warm, joyous account of growing up American with immigrant parents.]

 

Viscusi, Robert. Astoria. Montreal: Guernica, 1995.

[An imaginative personal narrative through which this scholar/poet on a Fulbright visit to Paris recounts his personal and cultural histories creating a complex document through which an American intellectual emigrant from Astoria, New York, examines his personal journey into the world of ideas and its relationship to his Italian/American upbringing.]

 

Vitiello, Justin. Sicily Within. Jamaica, NY: Arba Sicula, 1992.

[Through travelogue-type journalism, poetry, memoirs and imaginative narrative, and crisp dialogue, Vitiello recreates his nine year journey from tourist to near native of this island that is as time filled as it is timeless.]

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