| abstract | - On a crisp, clear February morning 1921; at the tender age of 12 years and armed with just two bricks; Fante single-handedly built the Hoop Creek Stone Bridge, Colorado. It was a grace to behold and it's completion would herald a new dawn in construction. Fante was talked of in the papers and the jobs rolled in. Finding he had to hire more men, Fante sired a family with a beautiful blonde Amercian woman of good stock. He and his family became folk heroes of the new world and a lesson to all the work-shy wops and spics who refused to take what America offered. As Fantes' fame spread over America many would write to him in search of bricklaying tips. Fante would usually write back, "No time to talk. Trial and error is the best way to learn. Thanks for the thoughts. Fante". This was a man too busy for writing. In 1946, Fante, a millionaire many times, did take the time to put pen to paper and produced the seminal journal on bricklaying "Ask the brick" a heartbreaking tale of walls that appear impenetrable but have poor foundation; of falling brick; of shattered blocks. Since the publication of this authoritative compendium on all aspects of the craft not one wall has collapsed of natural causes in America.
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