Dear Los Angeles
A rich mosaic of diary entries and letters from Marilyn Monroe, Cesar Chavez, Susan Sontag, Albert Einstein, and many , this is the story of Los Angeles as told by locals, transplants, and some just passing through.The City of Angels has played a distinct role in the hearts, minds, and imaginations of millions of people, who see it as the ultimate symbol of the American Dream David Kipen, a cultural historian and avid scholar of Los Angeles, has scoured libraries, archives, and private estates to assemble a kaleidoscopic view of a truly unique city.From the Spanish missionary expeditions in the early 1500s to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the strange new world of social media, this collection is a slice of life in L.A through the years The pieces are arranged by date January 1st to December 31st featuring selections from different decades and centuries What emerges is a vivid tapestry of insights, personal discoveries, and wry observations that together distill the essence of the city.As sprawling and magical as the city itself, Dear Los Angeles is a fascinating, must have collection for everyone in, from, or touched by Southern California.With excerpts from the writing of Ray Bradbury Edgar Rice Burroughs Octavia E Butler Italo Calvino Winston Churchill No l Coward Simone De Beauvoir James Dean T S Eliot William Faulkner Lawrence Ferlinghetti Richard Feynman F Scott Fitzgerald Allen Ginsberg Dashiell Hammett Charlton Heston Zora Neale Hurston Christopher Isherwood John Lennon H L Mencken Ana s Nin Sylvia Plath Ronald Reagan Joan Rivers James Thurber Dalton Trumbo Evelyn Waugh Tennessee Williams P G Wodehouse and many Advance praise for Dear Los Angeles This book s a brilliant constellation, spread out over a few centuries and five thousand square miles Each tiny entry pins the reality of the great unreal city of Angels to a moment in human time moments enthralled, appalled, jubilant, suffering, gossiping or bragging and it turns out, there s no better way to paint a picture of the place Jonathan Lethem A scintillating collection of letters and diary entriesan engrossing trove of colorful, witty insights Publishers Weekly starred review Free Read eBook Dear Los Angeles Author David Kipen – kino-fada.fr Love me, hate meEntertaining overview of the city through personal letters and diary entries of a multitude of individuals including Hollywood stars, writer, explorers, officials, clergy, and average folks A skimming over of time as the area changed from the first Spanish entries to now Kipen selected entries for entertainment as much as edification.Nov 18, 1952Southern California talks of itself as the Southland, and is hardly even part of the Union when you mail letters to the rest of the Love me, hate meEntertaining overview of the city through personal letters and diary entries of a multitude of individuals including Hollywood stars, writer, explorers, officials, clergy, and average folks A skimming over of time as the area changed from the first Spanish entries to now Kipen selected entries for entertainment as much as edification.Nov 18, 1952Southern California talks of itself as the Southland, and is hardly even part of the Union when you mail letters to the rest of the country you drop them in a post offi...Looks like another perfect day I love L.A We love itsinger songwriter Randy NewmanRipen assembles various journal, diary, or blog entries from actors Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Charlton Heston , authors of all types novelists, screenwriters and journalists , early settlers and military personnel, politicians like adopted son Ronald Reagan and assorted other denizens of the City of Angels Some were funny actor Canadian transplant Ryan Reynolds on gluten , some were downLooks like another perfect day I love L.A We love itsinger songwriter Randy NewmanRipen assembles various journal, diary, or blog entries from actors Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Charlton Heston , authors of all types novelists, screenwriters and journalists , early settlers and military personnel, politicians like adopted son Ronald Reagan and assorted other denizens of the City of Angels Some were funny actor Canadian transplant Ryan Reynolds on gluten , some were d...This book could have been written for me.I collect letters and diaries, as I find firsthand glimpses of the past so muchinteresting than fiction written through a modern lens, or historical treatises that go on about politics without focusing on the individuals Though I must say, historical writing by today s scholars is veering away from white male gaze on politics andtoward the actual people involved, including women But anyway From time to time over the years, when I m either This book could have been written for me.I collect letters and diaries, as I find firsthand glimpses of the past so muchinteresting than fiction written through a modern lens, or historical treatises that go on about politics without focusing on the individuals Though I must say, historical writing by today s scholars is veering away from white male gaze on politics andtoward the actual people involved, including women But anyway From time to time over the years, when I m either really tired, or have just a bit of free time, I d go through my various collections of letters and diaries and look up that day of the year, and read what people did and thought on that day, over the centuries.Well, this book has taken the same idea The preface discusses in an engaging way what the author did once he d begun collecting all these letters and journal entries about Los Angeles over the years He tried various organizational methods, then landed on a similar idea...I received an early version of the book via NetGalley.Kipen approached the history and development of Los Angeles in an intriguing, unique way day by day The book is essentially arranged like a daily devotional, with each day containing diary entries written about or in Los Angeles anywhere from 1542 and 2018 At first, I found this non chronological approach to a big jolt The entries, most of them a few sentences or a paragraph or two, can jump from 19th century soldiers describing their rid I received an early version of the book via NetGalley.Kipen approached the history and development of Los Angeles in an intriguing, unique way day by day The book is essentially arranged like a daily devotional, with each day containing diary entries written about or in Los Angeles anywhere from 1542 and 2018 At first, I found this non chronological approach to a big jolt The entries, most of them a few sentences or a paragraph or two, can jump from 19th century soldiers describing their ride to the Menendez Brothers trial to a 1930s Santa Monica beach party After a while, though, I fell into a groove Many of the authors have ...When celebrated food critic Jonathan Gold passed away recently, one of his most popular quotes was circulated around the internet If you live in Los Angeles, you are used to having your city explained to you by people who come in for a couple weeksThe thing that people find hard to understand is the magnitude of what s here The huge numbers of multiple cultures that live in the city that come together in this beautiful and haphazard fashion And the fault lines between them are sometimes w When celebrated food critic Jonathan Gold passed away recently, one of his most popular quotes was circulated around the internet If you live in Los Angeles, you are used to having your city explained to you by people who come in for a couple weeksThe thing that people find hard to understand is the magnitude of what s here The huge numbers of multiple cultures that live in the city that come together in this beautiful and haphazard fashion And the fault lines between them are sometimes where you can ...I m not sure how much you ll learn about the actual city of Los Angeles by reading this book, but you WILL learn a fair bit about the editor s idea of Los Angeles This is the untold story of an eclectic tapestry of just kidding, it s primarily a nother story of famous or semi famous white writers and artistic types in largely yesteryear Hollywood Faulkner and Fitzgerald thought WHAT about the studios Someone was at a party with Joan Didion Theodore Dreiser liked sex I really thought I m not sure how much you ll learn about the actual city of Los Angeles by reading this book, but you WILL learn a fair bit about the editor s idea of Los Angeles This is the untold story of an eclectic tapestry of just kidding, it s primarily a nother story of famous or semi famous white writers and artistic types in largely yesteryear Hollywood Faulkner and Fitzgerald thought WHAT about the studios Someone was at a party with Joan Didion Theodore Dreiser liked sex I really thought I would like this book hoped I would love it and wound up kinda hating it Of course there are some pithy gems amongst the 100s of quotes, letter excerpts, journal entries, and the one random Ryan Reynolds tweet You will also find some gems if you Google quotes about Los Angeles Kipen curates a heaping helping of Hollywood and literary luminaries, then sprinkles in some old timey sources, news reports, and quick references to the zoot suit riots, WWII, an...4.5 stars, fascinating look at our fastest changing city through the eyes of the people who lived there.I so wanted to love DEAR LOS ANGELES by David Kipen, L A native, former literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts and book editor critic of the San Francisco Chronicle The potential is there for a terrific read, as this fascinating collection features diary entries and letters from 1542 to 2018, woven together to form a rich tapestry of Los Angeles over centuries.But what is missing is the visual riff photos, illustrations, a colorful design that could encircle and set off I so wanted to love DEAR LOS ANGELES by David Kipen, L A native, former literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts and book editor critic of the San Francisco Chronicle The potential is there for a terrific read, as this fascinating collection features diary entries and letters from 1542 to 2018, woven together to form a rich tapestry of Los Angeles over centuries.But what is missing is the visual riff photos, illustrations, a colorful design that could encircle and set off these pieces as the gems they are Kipen sourced material from the archives of libraries, historical societies, and private estates a prodigious effort to create a kaleidoscopic ...GNab I found the construction of this collection of diary and letter offerings and fantasies intriguing Rather than set out, as tradition would dictate, in year sequence, David Kipen has organized his groupings of quotations by many well knowns that define Los Angeles and southern California so well in calendar month and day order A little confusing at first, but this quickly became the only way to look at this collection I found this a wry and fascinating definition of L.A., one I am pleased GNab I found the construction of this collection of diary and letter offerings and fantasies intriguing Rather than set out, as tradition would dictate, in year sequence, David Kipen has organized his groupings of quotations by many well knowns that define Los Angeles and southern California so well in calendar month and day order A little confusing at first, but ...This book has an unusual layout there is an entry for every day of the year, but the year the entry is from varies from 1542 through 2018 The entries are chosen from letters and diaries Each one is a statement about life in Los Angeles at the time Some are from Catholic brethren who are bringing religion to the west Some are from politicians Some are from famous writers drawn to LA to write scripts for Hollywood The samples may be from Gold Rush days, the Golden Age of Hollywood, the De This book has an unusual layout there is an entry for every day of the year, but the year the entry is from varies from 1542 through 2018 The entries are chosen from letters and diaries Each one is a statement about life in Los Angeles at the time Some are from Catholic brethren who are bringing religion to the west Some are from politicians Some are from famous writers drawn to LA to write scripts for Hollywood The samples may be from Gold Rush days, the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Depression, or recent days I have seen quite a few complaints about the format, but I really liked it I might be bored with a time in history ...
- 26 July 2017 David Kipen
- Hardcover
- 576 pages
- 0812993985
- David Kipen
- Dear Los Angeles