920 O'Farrell Street: A Jewish Girlhood in Old San Francisco

by Harriet Lane Levy, Charlene Akers (Introduction)

Originally published in 1937 in the later years of her extraordinary life, Harriet Lane Levy's memoirs of her childhood in San Francisco during the late 1800s give us a rare view into the traditional life and manners of an upper-middle-class Jewish family of the era. With sly wit and a writing style critics compared to Jane Austen's, Levy vividly portrays an often stifling world of parlors and sitting rooms, maids and cooks, family intrigue and neighborhood pretensions, eased by the warmth of family affections and Levy's own independent spirit. It was her unique sense of self that enabled Levy to break away from this quiet, comfortable, almost ritualistically bourgeois existence and go on from 920 O'Farrell to lead a rather unconventional life. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley at a time when very few women went to college, and wrote for The Wave, along with Frank Norris and Jack London. She then moved to Paris with Alice B. Toklas and became an intimate of Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Matisse, and other leaders of the modern art movement. Written long after the familiar city of her youth had disappeared with the 1906 earthquake, these rich and thoughtful reminiscences reveal a Victorian world of surface formalities and underlying urgency.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, History, Classics

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Harriet Lane Levy was a California writer best known for her memoir, 920 O’Farrell Street. Levy was also an avid art collector, a childhood friend of Alice B. Toklas, and an acquaintance of Gertrude Stein.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: a yawning, heavy-lidded 3* of five (for historical interest only, and the fact that I remember O'Farrell Street as the service entrance to the Cadillac dealer where we got our cars fixed when I was little)

You know why I picked this book up? The address. San Francisco isn't on my life-list of places to love, but it's very interesting. And, I found out after reading this dull, dull, dull book that Levy knew Alice B. Toklas! Even lived with her in Paris.

Hmmm...never married, knew lesbians...hmmm

None of that makes her in the least bit interesting, I fear. Her childhood in 1870s San Francisco was pretty much what you'd expect. I could scarcely keep my eyes open for much of the book. Her writing style is very much of the period of her youth, and in fact the book reads like the stilted, uninformative letters home that I've read in many a Collected Letters book about figures of that age.

The book, the only one she ever published, was brought out in 1947 when she was eighty years old. Frankly, for that reason alone, I think it deserves some place in our cultural memory...she was an old, old woman by the standards of that day, and she was Jewish, and she was *ahem* unmarried, so she was a very, very different sort of a person. Good! Yes, publishers, good to bring out alternative voices!

Ye gods, I don't want to read this kind of bludgeoningly boring book ever, ever again.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a delight to read. It is a memoir of growing up Jewish in 1870's San Francisco. Harriet Levy's style is to grab the reader's hand and walk arm in arm down O'Farrell Street. She discribes the neighbor's, her home and the characters that inhabit the world of her childhood. Writing from 60's in the future, she is able to add satire to her discriptions of her thoughts and prejudices of society at that time. A wonderful bright book.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

WONDERFUL! This will be another of my San Francisco "historical" favorites. World War 1 history and couldn't put it down until I at the last page. Well written and most is historically accurate. It's a KEEPER!

[Beverly Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting memories (published 1947) by a woman whose childhood home and family were in San Francisco in the late 1800's, early 1900's.

[Caitlin Morehouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is also one of my favourite books. Just a simple, thoughtful memoir. If you've ever wondered what old San Francisco was like, this is an excellent example. Thoroughly enjoyable, intimate, and relatable. *I found this book when I worked as a visual merchandiser in a fancy furniture store in Florida and we were using it, along with other old books, as props in a book shelf. It looked interesting and my boss let me have it. Good read!

[Frogqueen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is it a literary masterwork? Nope. There are even a some rather tedious bits. And yet, when it's good (which is mostly), it's a fascinating mix of domestic anecdotes and glimpses of a young San Francisco. The closest comparison for me would be Edwords' _Bohemian San Francisco_, though some of the stories might also evoke a bit of _Life with Father_.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

great snippets of life in San Francisco in mid- to late- 1800's. enjoyed here writing and use of language and wish she'd written more. would like to read her poetry and I'm not usually drawn to poetry.

[Kevin Hermosillo]

It was slow at first, but her writing style drew me in. She did a good job of describing life in San Francisco in the mid-1800s.

[Faina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, it's history, but the way she describes her life makes me think of vanity, gossip, judging others by their wealth alone.