Welcome!
FORTHCOMING FROM GRAILING PRESS: CONFESSIONS OF AN ASPIRING PORNOGRAPHER
IN INTERLOCKING STORIES WE SEE THE WORLD OF WALTER GREGORY, ASPIRING WRITER, AS IT SPRAWLS ACROSS LOWER MANHATTAN IN THE 50s, 60s and 70s.
Professor Eric Goldman's Review of Confessions of an Aspiring Pornographer
Anthony Valerio's Confessions of an Aspiring Pornographer is about the pleasure of creation. One by one, his characters rise, walk, talk and, of course, make love. Make no mistake, though, because Confessions isn't just, or even primarily, about sex, maugre the title; it's about love. For Valerio not only creates, with exquisite pleasure and loving skill, but raises his characters with loving care. And like holograms, with each engraved line they come closer to springing off the page. And spring they do, sometimes even onto each other.
One such character, an eight-foot-long Bengal tigress, appears and disappears mysteriously and beautifully in the otherwise realistic landscape of Valerio's Manhattan. The tigress, a symbol of Valerio himself, ties together the collage-like pieces described by the titular "aspiring," but not realized, pornographer: Walter Michael Gregory, a persona of the author himself. On the hunt through the city for character, Gregory finds it in a variety of strange places and people, including himself (that's why one of his characters, interpreting his dream tigress, tells him, "You are the Bengal tiger . . . You are her frightened prey").
Like the phantom tigress, Valerio's lines are simultaneously muscular and elegant. All that power moves easily, leaping from thought to thought with absolutely no strain at all, and with plenty left over, you feel. It's about being as compact as possible, naturally, with no wasted space, and no wasted word.
Along with the characters who orbit Valerio's sun-like persona, Walter Michael Gregory—who warms them into life and vivacity as the sun warms the planets—is, of course, the author himself, in disguised form. Valerio gives us a bildungsroman-like account of his childhood, backlit of course with imagination and invention—one that leads through isolation all the way to and through aspiring pornography. What we finally arrive at as readers—in spite of the impact of a clam-like asteroid fragment that cleaves Walter Gregory's soft porn publishing house in two—is the destination of all of Valerio's works, humanity.
link to radio show on November 2. Great show with Stephan Alison about my relationship with Shel Silverstein (BEFORE THE SIDEWALK ENDED: A WALK WITH SHEL SILVERSTEIN and
introduction and reading from forthcoming book: CONFESSIONS OF AN ASPIRING PORNOGRAPHER.
link:
https://wesu.streamrewind.com/bookmarks/listen/393757/river-valley-rhythms
thanks, AV
CONFESSIONS OF AN ASPIRING PORNOGRAPHER
JUST FINISHED. EXCITED ABOUT IT, OBVIOUSLY.
a little about it:
Of the editorial fields open to aspiring writers in the 60s and 70s is the world of commissioned porn. Wally Gregory wends his way through Lower Manhattan's micro-communites, dishing up porn for a salary and a chance at the entry into the world of literaure. Forthcoming from Grailing Press
link to excerpt: https://shoutout.wix.com/so/ccOan0tVu?languageTag=en&cid=3a15eb5c-9f19-481c-bfad-e1c0dd821cdb
Chapter One: At Maurizio's Cafe
Just out--New Short Novel
BILLY BELLO, WIZARD OF BENSONHURST
Meet teenager Billy Bello, modern-day wizard. He can see through things. He can step onto his magic carpet and fly to distance lands. Ride elephants in India with Sabu. At the same time, Billy shares anxieties with young folks around the world. Drugs. Crime. Coming-of-age Sex. He fancies himself a lover.
Check out my YOU TUBE CHANNEL WHICH IS FEATURING
READINGS FROM MY WORLD-WIDE VIRTUAL TOUR.
HERE'S THE LINK.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6HUc1QxYCapjyP9fDqorCQ
Featuring Back Stories to each book (beginnign with the last one, BILLY BELLO, WIZARD, followed by BART: A LIFE OF A.BARTLETT GIAMATTI.)
Cover of my best-selling BART. Designed by my great former editor Cork Smith.
photo of John Dante from JOHN DANTE'S INFERNO, a Playboy's Life
Gripping, literate, naughty, bawdy
Anthony Valerio's biography of John Dante, Hugh Hefner's second-in-command at *Playboy* and the Great Libertine's best friend for over 40 years, is like no other book I have read. Deft and clever, literate and highly readable.
First, there's the subject matter. Decades of insider *Playboy* views, virtually from the landmark magazine's inception. Second, there is the intricate weaving of the "other" Dante's story. John Dante sought to imitate Dante Alighieri, he of the medieval, Italian and "divine" Comedy, who meted out punishments, penances, and paradises, in an epic-length poem made of three parts. What has one to do with the other? That would be the third part of this unique book, part social history, part immigrant story, the part that I will call the cautionary tale. For, and I won't say how, John Dante does not end well.
Parading through these pages are some of the best-known names in show business and, its darker side--especially for a magazine self-identified as "men's entertainment"-- pornography: Beatty, Bogdanovich, Caan, Cosby, Curtis, Jagger, Lovelace, Nicholson, Reems, Steinem, and, especially, Silverstein. Readers will be riveted by the portrait of the beloved children's author that emerges in these pages. Not exactly what they may have expected. Silverstein urged John Dante to contact Valerio, whom Silverstein knew and whose work he respected, so that John Dante could write a book--the insider's view of *Playboy*!--that would earn him enough money to get him to Florence, the town that exiled his namesake, the poet Dante Alighieri close to 700 years earlier. The 20th-century (John) Dante gets to Florence all right, but the price is steep, indeed. It's not exactly *Se7en,* but it has its dark, seamy, *nasty* side. Think *Star 80*.
The surprising portrait of Silverstein is but one of the gifts that this book offers. Another is the gangsta Chicagoland of the 1950s and early `60s, which teems with memorable gangland characters.
Part biography, part immigrant story, *John Dante's Inferno* in some ways mimics the Poet Dante's imagined journey through hell, into purgatory, and, finally, into paradise. Yet the 20th Century was a chaotic one, and sometimes it's difficult to keep separate what is hell and what is heaven. For example, John Dante claims to have had 16,000 women--and, *maybe*, one male--as lovers (he can't be sure: he was too stoned to say, exactly). Heavenly, to be sure, at least as far as John Dante was concerned. Heavenly, but with a (hellish) price to be paid.
Valerio writes surely and gives us gripping and very, very literate prose. It seems completely appropriate that the readers of *John Dante's Inferno* be brought into the presence of the Great Libertines of western culture, which include, surely, Casanova and Hugh Hefner.
Read it. And enjoy.
A powerful, funny novel. Preceded The Sopranos and Analyze This
Conversation with Johnny is very special to me, because it constitutes at least my own dual cultural nature, the writer and the individual of power, the local gangster who most of us experienced in the old neighborhoods. Here, they merge into one. Out of this duo comes, I hope, a kind of closure on the stereotype we also all know, that of the godfather myth. On an exalted plain above all of this, to my great pleasure, is the alluring, elusive woman
just released: Audible Original -
CONVERSATION WITH JOHNNY, a novel of power & sex
& enjoyed recording the Audible Original of this project.
Great fotos also of a Greenwitch Village of the 80's & 90's largely gone by Dave Barry.
recent kind words about BEFORE THE SIDEWALK ENDED: A WALK WITH SHEL SILVERSTEIN-
A Great Nostalgic Trip to New York with Valerio and Shel Silverstein
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2020
Valerio's voice is unique, and reflects the cityscape he describes in this "walk" with Silverstein. About midway through the book, Shel provides a "blurb" for one of Valerio's books that, to me, seemed like a perfect description of this charming promenade. (You'll have to read this; and see the original note). One can't help but be nostalgic with the author for an earlier era (nostalgic for certain things, not Aids or orgies). I couldn't help but think, in reading this, that there was a flavor to NYC that seems duller now….but is totally present in Valerio's writing. The writing transports and provides welcome oasis these days!
link to Amazon's page for John Dante's Inferno
JUST RELEASED:
BEFORE THE SIDEWALK ENDED: A WALK WITH SHEL SILVERSTEIN
E & PRINT EDITIONS
Anthony Valerio's biography of John Dante, Hugh Hefner's second-in-command at *Playboy* and the Great Libertine's best friend for over 40 years, is like no other book I have read. Deft and clever, literate and highly readable. First, there's the subject matter. Decades of insider *Playboy* views, virtually from the landmark magazine's inception. Second, there is the intricate weaving of the "other" Dante's story. John Dante sought to imitate Dante Alighieri, he of the medieval, Italian and "divine" Comedy, who meted out punishments, penances, and paradises, in an epic-length poem made of three parts. What has one to do with the other? That would be the third part of this unique book, part social history, part immigrant story, the part that I will call the cautionary tale. For, and I won't say how, John Dante does not end well. Parading through these pages are some of the best-known names in show business and, its darker side--especially for a magazine self-identified as "men's entertainment"-- pornography: Beatty, Bogdanovich, Caan, Cosby, Curtis, Jagger, Lovelace, Nicholson, Reems, Steinem, and, especially, Silverstein. Readers will be riveted by the portrait of the beloved children's author that emerges in these pages. Not exactly what they may have expected. Silverstein urged John Dante to contact Valerio, whom Silverstein knew and whose work he respected, so that John Dante could write a book--the insider's view of *Playboy*!--that would earn him enough money to get him to Florence, the town that exiled his namesake, the poet Dante Alighieri close to 700 years earlier. The 20th-century (John) Dante gets to Florence all right, but the price is steep, indeed. It's not exactly *Se7en,* but it has its dark, seamy, *nasty* side. Think *Star 80*. The surprising portrait of Silverstein is but one of the gifts that this book offers. Another is the gangsta Chicagoland of the 1950s and early `60s, which teems with memorable gangland characters. Part biography, part immigrant story, *John Dante's Inferno* in some ways mimics the Poet Dante's imagined journey through hell, into purgatory, and, finally, into paradise. Yet the 20th Century was a chaotic one, and sometimes it's difficult to keep separate what is hell and what is heaven. For example, John Dante claims to have had 16,000 women--and, *maybe*, one male--as lovers (he can't be sure: he was too stoned to say, exactly). Heavenly, to be sure, at least as far as John Dante was concerned. Heavenly, but with a (hellish) price to be paid. Valerio writes surely and gives us gripping and very, very literate prose. It seems completely appropriate that the readers of *John Dante's Inferno* be brought into the presence of the Great Libertines of western culture, which include, surely, Casanova and Hugh Hefner.
Read it. And enjoy.
Just released--Print Edition of ANTHONY VALERIO'S SEMMELWEIS
WRITING WORKSHOP IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME
ANTHONY VALERIO'S 2 1/2 hr. ANIMATED VIDEO ON WRITING-
Write better in the comfort of your home.
Enter a professional writer's studio & life.
My 2 1/2 hour animated & animating writing workshop can help all levels of writers. You can try iit and purchase here:
https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-from-the-masters-anthony-valerio-on-writing/?instructorPreviewMode=guest
Testimonials:
The best
Valuable information
Engaging delivery
Helpful practice activities
thanks, AV
DANTE IN LOVE, a modern literary interpration of Dante's classic VITA NUOVA, A NEW LIFE
"The mixing of the two voices, the translator and the explicator, works wonderfully. A winner, very good stuff, really."
Giuseppe Mazzotta, Sterling Professor in the Humanities for Italian, Yale University.
"I just kept on reading it right through even though I had read the original many times. Anthony Valerio's version really makes it new.--Rebecca West, William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, University of Chicago.
great RADIO SPOT!
interesting and at times surprising in a great way, radio interview the other day. Thanks to host Ben Michael. AV
Thought that since I wrote them I might talk a little about my books. Ten in number, thus far, covering my writing life beginning in the late 1970's with the Short Story "The Skyjacker" in The Paris Review and continuing to the recently completed Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor. Feels like just the other day.-- A.V. - 03/2019.
Titles in ascending order:
The Mediterranean Runs Through Brooklyn
Valentino & the Great Italians
BART: a Life of A. Bartlett Giamatti
Anita Garibaldi, a Biography
Conversation with Johnny, a novel
Toni Cade Bambara's One Sicilian Night, a memoir
The Little Sailor, a Romantic Thriller
John Dante's Inferno, a Playboy's Life
IMMIGRANTS according to Anthony Valerio, Volumes 1 & 2
Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor
Proud to say all books are in print. They - digital & print editions - can be found on Amazon.com -- search Anthony Valerio. And each title has its own Facebook page which will be listed in the Works section. - - Anthony
Except from Author's Note, Semmelweis, the Women's Doctor
I have attempted to present his life and work through his eyes, mind and heart. At the same time, experience as deeply as possible the horror of a new mother who contracted childbed fever in the days immediately after giving the gift of life. Her motherhood denied! Sudden farewell to her newborn! Attempting in a flash to see how he or she will turn out! Identifying with her pain, the pity. Unimaginable pain, for the post-partum "twilight sleep" of a combination of morphine and scopolamine, an amnesiac, would not be introduced until 60-odd years later. To comprehend the life of Ignaz Semmelweis, one must also plumb oneself, we children who survived.
...the hope is that today, around the world, at this moment, when one is passing surely one of millions of hand sanitizers and uses it to cleanse the hands, a thought can possibly go out to Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis and a fuller understanding, and appreciation, of his life and work.
About The Women's Doctor: Ignaz Semmelweis—
"In a global #metoo moment, Semmelweis should also have his place as someone who listened to women and, significantly, to their ailing bodies, even as the medical profession dismissed a common affliction killing women as a "woman's illness" and therefore not worthy of a place on the forefront of medicine. There is a photo circling the internet of the actor Patrick Stewart holding a sign with the Amnesty International seal. The caption for this image, presumably in Stewart's own words, is this: "People won't take you seriously unless you're an old white man, and since I'm an old white man I'm going to use that to help the people who need it." The sign Stewart is holding reads: Defend right for girls and women. Semmelweis, like Stewart, believed in embodied response, of putting one's body behind and into one's words. To be sure, Semmelweis was a pioneering physician and scientist whose accomplishments should be studied for their contributions to science. But he was also a feminist, and his work should be understood in that vein, also."--Ellen Nerenberg, Hollis Professor of Romance Languages & Literatures, Dean, Arts and Humanities. Wesleyan University
On a school outing with my 9 and 10-year-old classmates to the local cinema we saw a film about the life and work of Dr. Semmelweis. I knew about him, from school but even more from my parents; at home I read about famous Hungarian heroes, not just kings and warriors, but those ignored in their lifetime, whose work could have benefited all, children, women, and men. Our history, so full of tragedies like his, unrealized potential: failed reformers and inventors, scientists and artists embittered and ignored, driven to early death. –Akös Őstor, professor, author, filmmaker
Looking at and understanding someone like Semmelweis on a deep level and how he combated prejudices and prevailing thoughts and changed the way medicine is practiced is as relevant today as it was in the 1840s.—Prakash Sampath, M.D. Surgeon. President, Rhode Island Neurological Institute
My first book-
The Mediterranean Runs Through Brooklyn
https://www.amazon.com/MEDITERRANEAN-THROUGH-BROOKLYN-ANTHONY-EDITIONS-ebook/dp/B006GCVZ50/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1607549794&sr=8-23
The Mediterranean Runs Through Brooklyn by Anthony Valerio contains a series of portraits: "My Mother," "My Father," "My Sister," "My Aunts," "My Uncles" and others. Valerio writes with energy and a rich style, and has an unusually good eye for detail. The situations happen in Brooklyn in the life of an Italian-American family, and sometimes in Italy. Talk about ethnicity:It's here in dozens of guises and shapes. Rudolph Valentino figures in two stories: "You could tell Valentino coming from a mile away by his gait and the unusual swing of his arms. He placed one foot directly in front of the other and swung his arms high in front and just as high in back...and he never looked you straight in the face, tilting his head slightly away to hide his cauliflower ear and his scar." The book has zest, high humor, madness, detached reflection, and pathos.
--Los Angeles Times