Dear California: The Golden State in Diaries and Letters

by David Kipen (editor)

California has always been, literally, a place to write home about. Renowned figures and iconoclasts, politicians, actors, and artists, the world-famous and the not-so-much, all have contributed their voices to the patchwork of the state. With this book, cultural historian and California scholar David Kipen reveals this long-storied place through its residents' writings―and gives readers a highly anticipated follow up to his book Dear Los Angeles . Running from January 1 through December 31, leaping across decades and centuries, Dear California reflects on the state's shifting landscapes and the notion of place. Entries talk across the centuries, from indigenous stories told before the Spanish arrived on the Pacific coast through to present-day tweets, blogs, and other ephemera. The collected voices show how far we've wandered―and how far we still have to go in chasing the elusive California dream. This is a book for readers who love California―and for anyone who simply treasures flavorful writing. Weaving together the personal, the insightful, the impressionistic, the lewd, and the hysterically funny, Dear California presents collected writings essential to understanding the diversity, antagonisms, and abiding promise of the Golden State. Writings from Edward Abbey, Louis Armstrong, Ambrose Bierce, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, John Cage, Italo Calvino, Willa Cather, Cesar Chavez, Julia Child, Winston Churchill, Simone de Beauvoir, Cecil B. De Mille, Albert Einstein, Ralph Waldo Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Fonda, Frank Gehry, Allen Ginsberg, Ulysses S. Grant, Dolores Huerta, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Steve Jobs, Billy Joel, Frida Kahlo, John F. Kennedy, Anne Lamont, John Lennon, Groucho Marx, Henri Matisse, Marshall McLuhan, Herman Melville, Charles Mingus, Marilyn Monroe, John Muir, Ronald Reagan, Sally Ride, Joan Rivers, Susan Sontag, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

526 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 3, 2023

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly interesting book which has lists of snippets from various letters, articles, and statements chronologically arranged (varied years listed) by day starting on January 1st and ending on December 31st. Fun read about California history.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a Southern California bias. And perhaps too many unknowns. But a compelling idea