The story of Mario Puzo's (1920-1999) three residencies at Yaddo reveal as much about the man as his work. During his first two visits, in 1958 and 1960, Puzo labored over his 1965 novel The Fortunate Pilgrim, which until his death he considered his finest. It told the tale of a remarkable Italian-American matriarch named Lucia Santa, who held her family together through many New World travails. Puzo claimed the most admirable qualities of both Lucia Santa and his later creation Don Vito Corleone belonged to his own mother: "Whenever the Godfather opened his mouth," Puzo said, "in my mind I heard the voice of my mother." Ultimately, the culture that inspired his stories would also keep him from working successfully at Yaddo. Though he completed some work on The Godfather during his third stay, he cut the visit short."I was having a good time," he wrote to Executive Director Elizabeth Ames, "but for some reason I wasn't working too well. Probably because the older I get the more Italian-peasant I get and so I can't be happy unless I'm bossing a bunch of kids around and hearing a lot of noise." (works cited in podcast)