Carving a Niche for Himself; The Untold Story of Luigi Del Bianco and Mount Rushmore, author Douglas J. Gladstone's valentine to the obscure Italian American immigrant who served as chief carver of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, will be published by Bordighera Press, it was recently announced.

Featuring a foreword by Italian American businessman Robert Benedetto, the chairman of Benedetto Guitars in Savannah, Georgia, Carving a Niche for Himself examines the selfless efforts of five time Parent's Choice award winner Lou Del Bianco, a children's performer and storyteller from Port Chester, New York, to honor his late grandfather.

Though Rushmore sculptor and designer Gutzon Borglum's own correspondence in the Library of Congress clearly indicates that Luigi Del Bianco was the glue that held the project together, Del Bianco for some inexplicable reason has never received the credit in scholarly publications or documentaries on the creation of the memorial that many individuals believe he is deserving of.

Del Bianco, a native of Meduno in the Province of Pordenone, died on January 20, 1969 of accelerated silicosis that was brought on, in part, by his years of not wearing a mask while working at the monument.

Carving a Niche for Himself, which is Gladstone's second book, is scheduled to be released in May 2014. The author's critically acclaimed first book, A Bitter Cup of Coffee; How MLB & The Players Association Threw 874 Retirees A Curve(Word Association Publishers, 2010), was widely credited with helping retired Major League Baseball (MLB) players win long overdue financial compensation from MLB.

Headquartered at 25 West 43rd Street in New York City, Bordighera Press is recognized as the foremost publisher of Italian-American literature and poetry in North America. Featuring works by or about Italian and Italian American authors and topics, it has produced groundbreaking scholarship and research consistently used in university courses. Founded in 1989 by Fred Gardaphé, Paolo Giordano, and Anthony Juilan Tamburri, Bordighera Press' books are carried by Small Press Distribution.

For more information, contact either Gladstone at 518-817-8253 or Tamburri at 212-642-2005.