Dear Los Angeles

by Dear Los Angeles- The City in Diaries

  WEAVER, JOHN D. Author, magazine editor. Occasionally some editor will lift his eyes to the heavens and wish for a good single-volume history of Los Angeles, unaware that Weaver already wrote one, The Enormous Village. A little outdated, but so is any single-volume history after a decade. The first two hundred years of it are golden. Quoted from Glad Tidings: A Friendship in Letters. The Correspondence of John Cheever and John D. Weaver, 1945–1982, edited by John D. Weaver (New York: HarperCollins, 1993).

  WEST, NATHANAEL Author of the novella Miss Lonelyhearts and the great Hollywood novel The Day of the Locust. Found L.A. a nice place to write about, but he didn’t want to live here—until he did. His unexpected happy marriage might well have ruined him for satire, but the couple perished in a car crash that same year, just a day after the death of his friend and admirer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Quoted from Nathanael West: Novels and Other Writings, edited by Sacvan Bercovitch (New York: Library of America, 1997).

  WESTON, EDWARD Celebrated photographer best known for his Western landscapes and nudes. Early in his career, Weston set up shop in Glendale. He wooed a prodigious cavalcade of women, squiring many to the Philharmonic of an evening. Finally he shacked up with his beloved Charis—all the while refining, and redefining, modernist photography. Diaries published in The Daybooks of Edward Weston; Two Volumes in One: I. Mexico, II. California, edited by Nancy Newhall (New York: Aperture, 1991).

  WILDER, LAURA INGALLS Author of Little House on the Prairie, Farmer Boy, and other beloved, underrated books about her childhood homesteading on the South Dakota plains. Quoted from The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by William Anderson (New York: HarperCollins, 2016).

  WILLIAMS, LIZA Sadly under-remembered, coolly neurasthenic columnist for the Los Angeles Free Press. Quoted from her Up the City of Angels (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1971).

  WILLIAMS, TENNESSEE Playwright, author of A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, the latter more or less begun in Santa Monica during an otherwise unproductive—albeit highly sociable—screenwriting stint. Deflowered years earlier in Laguna Beach, to his mortification. Quoted from The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, Volume 1, 1920–1945, edited by Albert J. Devlin and Nancy M. Tischer (New York: New Directions, 2000).

  WILSON, BENJAMIN DAVIS “DON BENITO” City father and L.A.’s second mayor. Arrived with the first party of overland settlers. Owned land from Westwood to Riverside, from Altadena to Wilmington. Led U.S. Army troops in the Mexican-American War, as would his grandson, George S. Patton, in World War II. Quoted from Don Benito Wilson: From Mountain Man to Mayor, Los Angeles 1841 to 1878, by Nat B. Read (Santa Monica, Calif.: Angel City Press, 2008).

  WILSON, BRIAN Presiding genius of the Beach Boys. Quoted lyrics published by Irving Music, affiliated with BMI.

  WILSON, CHARIS Author, model, diarist, and once the wife and muse of photographer Edward Weston. Quoted from “Charis Wilson journal, letters and notes documenting the Whitman trip with Edward Weston, 1936–2009,” Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

  WILSON, EDMUND Critic, historian, essayist, man of letters. Like Mencken and many other great American critics, he gave up on American fiction (except his own) too soon and pursued other curiosities. The rest of his career consistently altered the world’s understanding of whatever caught his fancy, from the history of Communism to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Visited Southern California once. Unimpressed. Stayed in L.A. only long enough to write about the evangelists Aimee Semple McPherson and Bob Shuler, then decamped south to file “The Jumping-Off Place” about San Diego, then among the suicide capitals of the world. Quoted from his The Twenties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period, edited by Leon Edel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975).

  WILSON, WOODROW President of the United States celebrated for his worst achievement, humiliating Germany in World War I, and ridiculed for one of his best, trying to bring about world peace. Glimpsed in his biography by Palisades High’s own A. Scott Berg actually clicking his heels aboard the presidential sleeping car on the morning after his second wedding night. Most of us picture Wilson, provided we can even keep him and the mediocrities who succeeded him straight, as a picklepuss, a hypocrite who ran on a peace platform and within months took us to war, a racist who threw a black civil-rights activist out of the Oval Office, a sap who bet his presidency on a gossamer sand castle called the League of Nations and lost. How to reconcile that Wilson with the virile, adoring husband who wrote from the road to his doomed first wife, “I am madly in love with you….Are you prepared for the storm of love making with which you will be assailed?” Wilson’s best biography is Berg’s, his weirdest by Sigmund Freud. He whisked through L.A. on a campaign tour just long enough to give an anti-corporate speech to the since-disappeared Jefferson Club and, wistfully, look up an old flame. Quoted from A Day of Dedication: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Woodrow Wilson, edited by Albert Fried (New York: Macmillan, 1965).

  WINCHELL, WALTER Terrifyingly influential newspaper gossip and political columnist. Quoted from “Hollywood Americana.” New York Daily Mirror, among others, 1941.

  WINTERS, YVOR Underappreciated poet and professor. Quoted from Selected Letters of Yvor Winters, edited by R. L. Barth (Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press, 2000).

  WODEHOUSE, P. G. Comic author of the Jeeves and Wooster novels. Wodehouse passed through and wrote the Hollywood-set novel Laughing Gas, nine short stories, and many mostly unused scenes for reputedly unmemorable movies. He also cleared $104,000 and complained about it in an L.A. Times interview, thus killing the golden goose for himself and not a few other screenwriters too. Quoted from A Life in Letters, edited by Sophie Ratcliffe (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2013).

  WOODS, REV. JAMES The first Presbyterian pastor in L.A. Lasted less than a year. Diaries published in The Reverend James Woods, Recollections of Pioneer Work in California (San Francisco: Joseph Winterburn & Co., 1878).

  WOOLLCOTT, ALEXANDER Waspish actor and wit. Quoted from The Letters of Alexander Woollcott, edited by Beatrice Kaufman and Joseph Hennessey (New York: Viking Press, 1944).

  WPA GUIDE TO LOS ANGELES, THE Idea bin for historical novelists, cribsheet for fact-checkers, God’s gift to narrative historians, Los Angeles: The City and Its Environs is a wayback machine for retrophile Angelenos everywhere. Also not above the occasional April Fool’s joke that eluded the D.C. office, as seen here. Quoted from Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels, introduced by this volume’s author (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).

  WRIGHT, FRANK LLOYD Architect of Hollyhock House, La Miniatura, and other landmark buildings in Los Angeles and around the country. His reputation has aged better than his buildings, as anyone over six feet tall can tell you. But he improved American architecture even more than L.A. improved him, and that’s saying plenty. Quoted in What They Say About the Angels (Pasadena, Calif.: Val Trefz Press, 1942).

  WYLER, WILLIAM Film director of The Best Years of Our Lives, Roman Holiday, and the Great World War II documentary Memphis Belle. As detailed in Mark Harris’s landmark book Five Came Back, Wyler went to war a light entertainer and came back a tragedian. Quoted at http://starsandletters.blogspot.com/​2013/​12/.

  ZANUCK, DARRYL Head of 20th Century-Fox, once a story man on Rin Tin Tin silents. Quoted from The Grove Book of Hollywood, edited by Christopher Silvester (New York: Grove Press, 1998).

  ZORINA, VERA Dancer on stage and film, a muse of the choreographer George Balanchine. Quoted from her Zorina (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986).

  For my parents, Angelenos by choice, now even farther west

  And for my beloved Colleen, native Bloom of Lincoln Heights

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As someone who’s not above sheepishly glancing at the acknowledgments of my friends’ books in search of my own name, I know that the next couple-three pages count. I’ve worked on Dear Los Angeles for s
even years, and I daresay the acknowledgments below will leave somebody out—surely a cause of relief in certain cases, but maybe knocking a nose or two out of joint elsewhere. I apologize to anybody who might look at these acknowledgments and find their own name unfairly missing. Whether below or not, numberless souls have helped me bring this book in for a landing. I so, so, thank you all.

  Libraries have always been my Jerusalem, and if I forget thee, O librarians, may my laptop lose its memory. As always, I bow down before all dozen outposts of the mighty UCLA library system. From the day I first ransacked its endless-seeming shelves as a high school student right up to my current dependence, bordering on the chemical, as a member of the faculty, it has never failed me. I thank its dedicated full-time staff for never de-accessioning all the books that I never knew I needed until I did.

  The guardians of the arcane mysteries housed in UCLA Special Collections, especially Genie Guerard, deserve special mention. One floor up, David Poepoe showed compassion, if not mercy, for my many crimes against due dates. He also helped run the late, keeningly lamented library book sales that once helped feed my appetite for Californiana. And that steely pair, Victoria Steele and Ginny Steel, the former Curator Emerita & Distinguished Librarian and the latter Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian, have helped make and keep UCLA libraries the envy of the academic world—just as Norman’s dad, the great Lawrence Clark Powell, intended.

  Reader, are you starting to skip past all these librarians? I wish you wouldn’t. Everything good in the world comes from either librarians or their patrons. I also thank my capable friend the USC archivist and manuscripts librarian Claude Zachary and the redoubtable Ned Comstock of the USC Cinema Arts Library—even if they do work at the wrong university. There’s a reason every book on film history for decades has Mr. Comstock’s name in the acknowledgments, and it’s not because he knows where all the confidential studio memos are kept.

  USC also hosts the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, which has given me a sense of unearned legitimacy for almost eight years now. The friendships I’ve made or deepened at LAIH have nourished this book in ways beyond counting. Hats off to ringmasters Louise Steinman, Allison Engel, and Clifford Johnson—and to Louise, especially, for introducing me to the one book I’ll never finish reading. Oh, and to Catherine Quinlan, dean of the USC Libraries, graceful sitter in the Valerie and Ronald Sugar Dean’s Chair, for courtesies and cookies of many kinds.

  USC’s hospitality also extends to hosting L.A. as Subject, the indispensable association of smaller organizations all dedicated to as quixotically heroic a mission as I can think of: preserving, archiving, and sharing the history and culture of the Los Angeles region. If this book sends a reader googling nowhere else, let it send you here: https://laassubject.org.

  I hope my next book gives me even more excuses to hang out at the Margaret Herrick Library, where Howard Prouty puts his encyclopedic knowledge of movies, books, and Los Angeles to work in the service of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Every serious student of L.A. should have Howard’s contact info as a vade mecum.

  At my home away from home, the Huntington Library, my friend Dave Mihaly, curator of Graphic Arts and Social History; the Western American History curator, Peter Blodgett; Christopher Adde, wizardly keeper of the library; retired Collections curator Sue Hodson; and Natalie Russell, Sue’s deserving inheritor, have all made the creation of this book both possible and congenial.

  And to all the stalwart librarians of the Los Angeles Public Library, a deep and lifelong bow.

  This book was also made possible by a generous, if finite, grant from the Department of Labor, i.e., unemployment insurance—and from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Frances Perkins, too, while we’re at it. There’s no payroll tax I pay more proudly.

  And, less directly but just as indispensably…

  To the Sycamore Street book group, for all the California savvy, good books, conviviality, and truly stupendous food you’ve brought into my life. If you ever pick Dear Los Angeles for a Tuesday night, be gentle with me.

  To the bookstores of Southern California, which have nourished me for as long as I’ve known how to read: If I’d bought every book I ever browsed among your shelves, there’d be even more of you left. I wish I had.

  To this region’s journalists, past and present, under good management and bad, who never stop teaching me how to write. You’re forever in my heart, and in my driveway.

  To my friends, especially the ones who’ve helped out when I needed an assignment or an attaboy. I haven’t forgotten.

  To three bosses who gave me the most fulfilling work I’ve ever known: Paul Wilner, Dana Gioia, and Bruce Beiderwell. If I could see you all in one room, I would levitate for joy.

  To Kevin Starr, who taught me most of what I know about California, and Jeffrey Lustig, the founder of the California Studies Association, who introduced me to Kevin and so much more. I picture them both, strolling the strand at Carey McWilliams’s favorite beauty spot, Point Sal, north of Santa Barbara, the only state park closed for repairs all but permanently. Save me a towel, guys.

  To the staff of Libros Schmibros, the nonprofit lending library we’ve built over the years—shelve this one under “gratitude.”

  To all the people in all the permissions departments who cut me some slack, thank you. I know you were only looking out for the rights of two groups I revere: authors and publishers. Sorry for all the guilt trips.

  To Fred Courtright, permissions dude extraordinaire, who gave me my first inkling of what I was in for.

  For Teresa Carpenter, in whose slushy footsteps I walk. Her book New York Diaries does the impossible: It makes New York almost as interesting as Los Angeles.

  To my agent, Sandy Dijkstra, who called me with the idea for this book just as I was thinking of it. That’s what I call simpatico.

  To Rachel Ake, who designed the book jacket. It’s weird but great to see, for the first time, the amorphous book I’ve had in my head for years and suddenly know—thanks to someone I’ve never met—exactly how I’ll picture it forever after.

  To my editor, Sam Nicholson, for winkling Dear Los Angeles out of me, and to Modern Library and the whole Penguin Random House team I’m just getting to know. If Albert Boni and Horace Liveright could see you, they’d be proud. Let’s do it again.

  And did you hear the one about the neurotic Jewish author who asks his mother, “How’d you like my book?” Mom says, “Meh. You might at least say something nice for your mother in the acknowledgments.” The author says, “But, Mom, I did! Didn’t you see where I said, ‘All errors are my own’?”

  And they are.

  Finally, to all the diarists, correspondents, and their families, this book is the party I wish I could throw for you. Please drop me a line and at least let me send you a book.

  And to Angelenos everywhere, homesick or still here: I’d love it if you’d at least consider sharing a personal or family diary entry or a letter with me for possible future publication via kipend@gmail.com. This pointillist history of Los Angeles has more blind spots than a Camry with a busted mirror. Let’s fill them in together. There’s always the paperback….

  PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint both previously published and unpublished material:

  Oscar Acosta: Excerpt from letter to Hugh Hefner from Oscar “Zeta” Acosta: The Uncollected Works edited by Ilan Stavans, copyright © 1996 by Marco Acosta (papers), copyright © 1996 by Ilan Stavans (introduction, chronology, bibliography). Reprinted by permission of Arte Publico Press. Louis Adamic: Excerpts from Dynamite by Louis Adamic, copyright © 1931, 1934 by Louis Adamic. Reprinted by permission of AK Press, Chico, CA. Theodor Adorno: Excerpts from Letters to His Parents 1939–1951 by Theodor W. Adorno, English translation copyright © 2006 by Polity Press. Reprinted by per
mission of Polity Press, Cambridge, UK. James Agee: Excerpt from Letters of James Agee to Father Flye edited with an introduction by James Harold Flye. Reprinted by permission of Melville House Publishing, Brooklyn, NY, and London. Ed Ainsworth: Excerpt from “Along El Camino Real” by Ed Ainsworth (Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1936). Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times. Ellen Alperstein: Excerpt from “The Enduring Fragments of 9/11” by Ellen Alperstein (LA Observer, 9/9/2011). Reprinted by permission of the author. Heather B. Armstrong: Excerpts from the writings of Heather B. Armstrong. Reprinted by permission of the author. Amy Asbury: Excerpts from The Sunset Strip Diaries. Reprinted by permission of the author. Brendan Behan: Excerpts from a letter by Brendan Behan displayed in the Dublin Writers Museum. Reprinted courtesy of Failte Ireland/the Dublin Writers Museum. Valeria Belletti: Excerpts from Adventures of a Hollywood Secretary edited and annotated by Cari Beauchamp, copyright © 2006 by Cari Beauchamp (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006). Reprinted by the kind permission of editor Cari Beauchamp and Margery Baragona. Stephen Vincent Benét: Excerpts from Selected Letters of Stephen Vincent Benét by Stephen Vincent Benét (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1960). Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. All rights reserved. Alan Bennett: Excerpt from Writing Home by Alan Bennett, copyright © 1995 by Forelake Ltd. Reprinted by permission of The Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. Sergei Bertensson: Excerpts from My First Time in Hollywood edited and annotated by Cari Beauchamp, introduction, annotations, and volume compilation copyright © 2015 by Cari Beauchamp. Reprinted by permission of Asahina and Wallace, Los Angeles. Jim Bouton: Excerpts from Ball Four by Jim Bouton, copyright © 1970, 1981, 1990, 2000 by Jim Bouton. Reprinted by permission of the author. Charles Bukowski: Excerpts from pp. 132, 294, 353 from Screams from the Balcony: Selected Letters, 1960–1970 by Charles Bukowski, edited by Seamus Cooney, copyright © 1993 by Charles Bukowski. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Edgar Rice Burroughs: All quotes from Edgar Rice Burroughs © 1975, 2017 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks TARZAN® and Edgar Rice Burroughs® owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. and used by permission. Richard Burton: Excerpts from The Richard Burton Diaries by Richard Burton, edited by Chris Williams (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), copyright © 2012 by Swansea University. Reprinted by permission of Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University, United Kingdom. Octavia Butler: Various quotes by Octavia Butler, copyright © by Octavia E. Butler. Reprinted by permission of Writers House LLC acting as agent for the Estate. John Cage: Letters from John Cage to Pauline Schindler. Reprinted by permission of the John Cage Trust. Italo Calvino: Excerpts from Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings by Italo Calvino, translated from the Italian by Martin McLaughlin, copyright © 2003 by the Estate of Italo Calvino. English translation copyright © 2003 by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Raymond Chandler: Excerpt from Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler by Raymond Chandler, edited by Frank McShane (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), copyright © 1981 by College Trustees, Ltd.; introduction, selection, editorial matter copyright © 1981 by Frank McShane. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London, W11 1JN. Cesar Chavez: Excerpts from the writings of Cesar Chavez, TM/© 2018 the Cesar Chavez Foundation www.chavezfoundation.org. Reprinted by permission of the Cesar Chavez Foundation. Susana Chávez-Silverman: Excerpt from Killer Crónicas by Susana Chávez-Silverman. Reprinted by gracious permission of the author. John Cheever: Excerpts from Glad Tidings: A Friendship in Letters, The Correspondence of John Cheever and John D. Weaver, 1945–1982 by John Cheever and John D. Weaver (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993). Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. Winston Churchill: 427 words from a letter from Winston S. Churchill to Clementine Churchill dated September 29, 1929, copyright © The Estate of Winston S. Churchill. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown, London on behalf of The Estate of Winston S. Churchill. Wanda Coleman: Excerpts from The Riot Inside of Me: More Trial & Tremors by Wanda Coleman, copyright © 2005 by Wanda Coleman. Reprinted with the permission of Black Sparrow Books, an imprint of David R. Godine, Publisher. Alistair Cooke: Quotes by Alistair Cooke © Cooke Americas, RLLP. Reprinted by permission of the Alistair Cooke Estate. Aaron Copland: Letter from Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein dated February 21, 1943. The words of Aaron Copland are reproduced by permission of The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., copyright owner. Eleanor Coppola: Excerpts from Notes on a Life by Eleanor Coppola, copyright © 2008 by Eleanor Coppola. Used by permission of Nan A. Talese, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Norman Corwin: Letters by Norman Corwin housed in the Norman Corwin Collection. Reprinted by permission of the Thousand Oaks Library Foundation. Noël Coward: Excerpt from The Noël Coward Diaries edited by Graham Payn and Sheridan Morley, copyright © 1982 by NC Aventales AG. Reprinted by permission of Alan Brodie Representation Ltd., www.alanbrodie.com. Glen Creason: Diary entries by Glen Creason. Reprinted by permission of the author. Simone de Beauvoir: Excerpt from Letters to Sarte by Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Quintin Hoare, published by Vintage, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, copyright © 1992. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited. Frank del Olmo: “Perspective on Autism: Facing Loss by Keeping Hope” by Frank del Olmo (Los Angeles Times, December 27, 1998). Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times. John Dos Passos: Writings by John Dos Passos. Reprinted by permission of Lucy Dos Passos Coggin. Theodore Dreiser: Excerpts from three letters from Theodore Dreiser to John Steinbeck (1940), Eleanor Roosevelt (1942), and Edward G. Robinson (1940), copyright © 1940, 1942 by the Dreiser Trust. Reprinted by Curtis Brown, Ltd. All rights reserved. Philip Dunne: Quotes from Philip Dunne from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. William Faulkner: Excerpts from eleven letters from Selected Letters of William Faulkner by William Faulkner, edited by Joseph Blotner, copyright © 1977 by Jill Faulkner Summers. Reprinted by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Richard Feynman: Excerpts from Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track by Richard Feynman, copyright © 2005, 2006, 2006. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. M.F.K. Fisher: Excerpts from the writings of M.F.K. Fisher. Reprinted by permission of InkWell Management on behalf of The Literary Trust u/w/o M.F.K. Fisher. F. Scott Fitzgerald: Excerpts from letters dated March 11, 1938, March 19, 1940, October 23, 1940, and December 15, 1940, from The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald by Andrew Turnbull, copyright © 1963 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan. Copyright renewed 1991. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. Sir John Gielgud: Excerpts from five letters by Sir John Gielgud. Reprinted by permission of the Sir John Gielgud Charitable Trust. Allen Ginsberg: Excerpts from Journals: Early Fifties, Early Sixties by Allen Ginsberg, copyright © 1977 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Lillian Gish: Quotes from Lillian Gish from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Don Herold: Quotes from Don Herold from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Langston Hughes: Excerpt from Selected Letters of Langston Hughes edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel with Christa Fratantoro, copyright © 2015 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Aldous Huxley: Excerpt from The Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley edited with an introduction by James Sexton, copyright © 2007 by James Sexton (Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, Publishers, 2007). Reprinted by permission of Rowman & Littlefield. All rights reserved. Eric Idle: Excerpt from The Greedy Bastard Diary by Eric Idle, copyright © 2005 by Eric Idle. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publis
hers. Helen Hunt Jackson: Excerpt from The Indian Reform Letters of Helen Hunt Jackson, 1879–1885 edited by Valerie Sherer Mathes, copyright © 1998 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University. Reprinted by permission of the University of Oklahoma Press. Una Kuster Jeffers: Two quotations from Una Jeffers appearing on pp. 169-170 of Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers, Volume One, 1890-1930 edited by James Karman, copyright © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the publisher, Stanford University Press, sup.org. Nunnally Johnson: Excerpts from The Letters of Nunnally Johnson by Dorris Johnson, copyright © 1981 by Dorris Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. James Jones: Excerpt from To Reach Eternity: The Letters of James Jones edited by George Hendrick, copyright © 1989 by George Hendrick and Gloria Jones. Reprinted by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. James Joyce: Excerpt from Finnegans Wake: Centennial Edition by James Joyce, copyright © 1939 by James Joyce, copyright renewed 1967 by Giorgio Joyce and Lucia Joyce. Reprinted by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Elia Kazan: Excerpts from The Selected Letters of Elia Kazan edited by Albert J. Devlin and Marlene J. Devlin, copyright © 2014 by Frances Kazan. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Carolyn Kellogg: Excerpts from personal journals from 1986–1987. Reprinted by permission of the author. Jack Kerouac: Excerpts from Windblown World: The Journals of Jack Kerouac 1947–1954 by Jack Kerouac, edited by Douglas Brinkley, copyright © 2004 by The Estate of Stella Kerouac, John Sampas, Literary Representative. Reprinted by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Eric Knight: Quotes from Eric Knight from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Louis L’Amour: Quotes from Louis L’Amour from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. John Lennon: Excerpts from John by Cynthia Lennon, copyright © 2005 by Cynthia Lennon. Reprinted by permission of Crown Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Steve Lopez: “Points West: A Bright Future Bought with Hard Work and Lots of Tacos” by Steve Lopez (Los Angeles Times, May 30, 2003). Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times. Mike Love and Brian Wilson: Excerpt from “The Warmth of the Sun,” lyrics and music by Mike E. Love and Brian Douglas Wilson, copyright © 1964 by Irving Music, Inc. Used by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation. All rights reserved. Ernst Lubitsch: Quotes from Ernst Lubitsch from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Charles Lummis: Excerpts from Charles Fletcher Lummis Papers, 1850–1929. Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum; MS.1. Reprinted by permission. Ross Macdonald (pseudonym of Kenneth Millar): Excerpts from two letters from Ross Macdonald to Eudora Welty. Reprinted by permission of the Margaret Millar Charitable Remainder Unitrust. Ricardo Flores Magon: Excerpts from Dreams of Freedom: A Ricardo Flores Magon Reader by Ricardo Flores Magon, edited by Chaz Bufe and Mitchell Cowen Verter. Reprinted by permission of AK Press, Chico, CA. Norman Mailer: Excerpts from The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer by Norman Mailer, edited by J. Michael Lennon (New York: Random House, 2014), copyright © 2014 by the Estate of Norman Mailer. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. Thomas Mann: Excerpts from five letters by Letters of Thomas Mann by Thomas Mann, selected and translated by Richard and Clara Winston, copyright © 1970 and copyright renewed 1998 by Penguin Random House LLC. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Groucho Marx: Excerpts from The Groucho Letters by Groucho Marx, copyright © 1967 by Groucho Marx and copyright renewed 1995 by Miriam Marx, Arthur Marx, and Melinda Marx. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. H. L. Mencken: Excerpts from two letters by H. L. Mencken. Reproduced by permission of Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland’s State Library Resource Center, in accordance with the terms of the will of H. L. Mencken. Henry Miller: Excerpts from two letters by Henry Miller, copyright © 2018 by the Estate of Henry Miller. Reproduced by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd. on behalf of the Literary Estate of Henry Miller. Tom Mix: Quotes from Tom Mix from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Marilyn Monroe: Excerpt from Marilyn Monroe Day by Day: A Timeline of People, Places and Events by Carl Rollyson, copyright © 2014 by Rowman & Littlefield. Reprinted by permission of Rowman & Littlefield. Willard F. Motley: Excerpt from an article in Commonweal from 1939. Reprinted by permission of Commonweal. For more information, visit www.commonwealmagazine.org. Vladimir Nabokov: Excerpts from Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters 1940–1971 by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov and Edmund Wilson, letters of Vladimir Nabokov copyright © 1979 by Vera Nabokov, executrix of The Estate of Vladimir Nabokov; additional letters copyright © 2001 by Dmitri Nabokov. Reprinted by permission of University of California Press via Copyright Clearance Center. Ogden Nash: Excerpts from Loving Letters from Ogden Nash by Ogden Nash, edited by Linell Nash Smith (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co., 1990) copyright © 1990 by Linell Nash Smith. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Anaïs Nin: Excerpts from The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume Six, 1955–1966 by Anaïs Nin, copyright © 1966, 1976 by Anaïs Nin. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Clifford Odets: Excerpts from The Time is Ripe: The 1940 Journal of Clifford Odets, copyright © 1988 by Walt Whitman Odets and Nora Odets; introduction copyright © 1988 by William Gibson. Used by permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. All rights reserved. Aaron Paley: Excerpts from Aaron Paley’s personal diaries. Reprinted by permission of the author. Michael Palin: Excerpts from Halfway to Hollywood: Diaries 1980–1988, copyright © 2009 by Michael Palin and Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years copyright © 2006 by Michael Palin. Reprinted by permission of The Orion Publishing Group, London. George S. Patton: Excerpt from General Patton: A Soldier’s Life by Stanley P. Hirshson, copyright © 2002 by Stanely P. Hirshon. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. S. J. Perelman: Excerpts from Don’t Tread on Me: The Selected Letters of S. J. Perelman edited by Prudence Crowther. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. Dawn Powell: Excerpts from The Diaries of Dawn Powell: 1931–1965 by Dawn Powell, copyright © 1995 by the Estate of Dawn Powell, introduction copyright © 1995 by Tim Page. Reprinted by permission of Steerforth Press. Ronald Reagan: Excerpts from The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan, edited by Douglas Brinkly, copyright © 2007 by The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation. Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers. Jean Renoir: Excerpts from Letters by Jean Renoir, copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Jean Renoir. Reproduced by permission of Faber & Faber Ltd. Kenneth Rexroth: Excerpt from a San Francisco Chronicle column by Kenneth Rexroth. Reprinted by permission of the Kenneth Rexroth Trust. Charles Reznikoff: Excerpts from The Selected Letters of Charles Reznikoff: 1917–1976, copyright © The Estate of Charles Reznikoff. Reprinted by permission of David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc. Robert Richardson: “ ‘Get Whitey’ Scream Blood-Hungry Mobs” by Robert Richardson (Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1965). Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times. Joan Rivers: Excerpts from Diary of a Mad Diva by Joan Rivers, copyright © 2014 by CCF Productions, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. José Rodriguez: Quotes from José Rodriguez from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Sandie Saito: Excerpts from letters between Sandie Saito and Molly Wilson archived at Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, www.densho.org. Reprinted by permission. Carl Sandburg: Excerpts from The Letters of Carl Sandburg, copyright © 1968 b
y Lillian Steichen Sandburg. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. William Saroyan: Quotes from William Saroyan from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Edwin Schallert: “New Orchestra Is Organized” (Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1919) and “Philharmonic Makes Debut” (Los Angeles Times, October 25, 1919). Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times. David O. Selznick: Two memos. Reprinted by permission of Daniel Selznick. Ruth Shellhorn: Excerpt from the Ruth Patricia Shellhorn Papers (Collection 1757) UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. Reprinted by permission. Nicolas Slonimsky: Excerpts from Dear Dorothy: Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow, edited by Electra Slonimsky Yourke. Reprinted by permission of Boydell & Brewer, Inc., University of Rochester Press. Jack Smith: “Fantasy Land of Films Doomed by Big Project” by Jack Smith (Los Angeles Times, January 13, 1958). Reprinted by permission of the Los Angeles Times. Susan Sontag: Excerpts from “1948” and “1949” from Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947–1963 by Susan Sontag, edited by David Rieff, copyright © 2008 by The Estate of Susan Sontag. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Stephen Spender: Excerpt from Journals: 1939–1983, edited by John Goldsmith (London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1985), copyright © 1985 by The Estate of Stephen Spender. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown Ltd. on behalf of the Literary Estate of Stephen Spender. Ben Stein: Excerpt from Hollywood Days, Hollywood Nights: The Diary of a Mad Screenwriter by Ben Stein, copyright © 1988 by Ben Stein. Used by permission of The Wallace Agency. John Steinbeck: Excerpts from a letter by John Steinbeck to Robert Ballou dated February 11, 1933, and excerpts from a letter by John Steinbeck to Elizabeth Otis dated December 15, 1939, from Steinbeck: A Life in Letters by John Steinbeck, edited by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, copyright © 1952 by John Steinbeck, copyright © 1969 by The Estate of John Steinbeck, copyright © 1975 by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten. Reprinted by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft: Excerpt(s) from RETROSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSIONS by Igor Stravinsky, copyright © 1969 by Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft. Copyright © 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 by Igor Stravinsky. Copyright © 1966, 1968, 1969 by Robert Craft. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Hazel Thornton: Excerpts from Hung Jury: The Diary of a Menendez Juror. Reprinted by permission of the author. James Thurber: Two excerpts from James Thurber’s correspondence with The New Yorker, copyright © 1939 by James Thurber. Reprinted by arrangement with Rosemary A. Thurber and the Barbara Hogenson Agency, Inc. Dalton Trumbo: Excerpts from Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo 1942–1962 by Dalton Trumbo. Reprinted by permission. Kenneth Tynan: Excerpts from the diaries of Kenneth Tynan. Reprinted by permission. Dolores Venegas: Excerpts from letters published in Letters Home: Mexican Exile Correspondence from Los Angeles 1927–1932. Reprinted by permission. José Miguel Venegas: Excerpts from letters published in Letters Home: Mexican Exile Correspondence from Los Angeles 1927–1932. Reprinted by permission. Rob Wagner: Quotes from Rob Wagner from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Irving Wallace: Quotes from Irving Wallace from Script Magazine. Reprinted by permission. Robert Penn Warren: Quotes from the writings of Robert Penn Warren. Reprinted by permission of the heirs of Robert Penn Warren. Evelyn Waugh: Excerpts from The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh by Evelyn Waugh, copyright © 1976 by The Estate of Evelyn Waugh. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. Nathanael West: Excerpt from letters from Nathanael West: Novels and Other Writings. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated. Edward Weston: Excerpts from Edward Weston’s Daybooks. Reprinted by permission of Weston Photography. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Excerpt from The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Laura Ingalls Wilder and William Anderson, copyright © 2016 by William Anderson; letters copyright © 2016 by Little House Heritage Trust; introduction, annotation, footnotes, explanatory text, photograph captions copyright © 2016 by William Anderson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Liza Williams: Quotes from three articles by Liza Williams, staff writer, Los Angeles Free Press. Reprinted courtesy of LAFreePress.com. Tennessee Williams: Excerpts from The Notebooks of Tennessee Williams by Tennessee Williams, copyright © 1975 by The University of the South. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. on behalf of the Tennessee Williams Estate. Charis Wilson: Excerpts from Charis Wilson, Guggenheim Journal. Reprinted by permission of Rachel Harris. Edmund Wilson: Excerpt from The Twenties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period by Edmund Wilson, edited by Leon Edel, copyright © 1975 by the Estate of Edmund Wilson (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975). Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux and The Wylie Agency LLC. Yvor Winters: Excerpts from Selected Letters of Yvor Winters by Yvor Winters edited by R. L. Barth. Reprinted by permission of Swallow Press/Ohio University Press. P. G. Wodehouse: Excerpts from A Life in Letters by P.G. Wodehouse edited by Sophie Ratcliffe (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), copyright © 2011 by Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate; introduction, selection and other editorial matter copyright © 2011 by Sophie Ratcliffe. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London, W11 1JN. Alexander Woollcott: Excerpt from The Letters of Alexander Woollcott by Alexander Woollcott, copyright © 1944 and copyright renewed 1972 by Penguin Random House LLC. Reprinted by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.