Travelers' Tales San Francisco - Softcover

Habegger, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1885211082 ISBN 13: 9781885211088

Publisher: Travelers' Tales Inc, 1996

Synopsis

Travel essays describe San Francisco, the culture, sites, activities, and the darker side of the city

About this title

From the Publisher:

San Francisco is "everybody's favorite city," or so the saying goes. Only about 220 years old, it is spoken of with the same wonder as Paris, Venice, and Rome. From the start, when the '49ers first arrived in hordes to scrabble for gold, it was a place where "anything goes"; today it is still a reservoir of tolerance, drawing spiritual desperadoes who constantly enrich the human skyline. It is a city of ethnic complexity, delicate Victorian architecture, and startling views of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay from its forty-odd hills. But more, it's a place where the spirit can be renewed simply by walking the streets, feeling the sea breeze, watching the fog pour over the hills. Geographically, San Francisco straddles an earthquake fault on the edge of a continent -- but for the seeker within, it remains an outpost for the soul. "Java Crawl," "Footprints in the Sand," and "Circle of Gold" are just a few of the selections in this new, deverse collection that reveals the heart and soul of San Francisco. Some of the notable authors included in the book are Herb Caen, Herbert Gold, Meredith Maran, Richard Rodriguez, and Michele Anna Jordan.

From Publishers Weekly:

What better way to prep for a journey than by reading interesting stories about one's destination? As glimpsed here through the eyes of beatniks, hippies, surfers, "lavender cowboys" and talented writers from all walks, San Francisco comes to vivid, complex life. One short story takes the reader surfing in monstrous waves at Ocean Beach; another, through an incredible history of SF's gay culture linked with a tour de force tale of AIDS and devotion. The diverse memoirs range from a dim sum disaster in Chinatown to the hot tub scene in Elgy Gillespie's wonderfully funny debut ("But letting boldness be my friend, I dropped the towel and plunged right in, with one smooth movement and an almighty splash, only to find that nobody was noticing anyway"). A far cry from a traditional guidebook, the tales also delve into the city's nitty-gritty, with accounts of pit-bull fighting, earthquakes, bad trips in the '60s and the dangers and thrills of a glory hole. Carefully chosen Herb Caen bits, news clips and historical details (the bullfights that once took place outside Mission Dolores Chapel, for example) mesh with the fiction pieces and poems to weave a rich fabric of place and time. For either San Francisco first-timers or third-generation natives, this compilation opens many windows on the city and offers great escapist reading. Maps and graphics not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Travelers' Tales Inc
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1885211082
• ISBN 13: 9781885211088
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408
• Editor: O'Reilly James, O'Reilly Sean, Habegger Larry