In Search of Literary L.A.

Literature & Fiction

Rolfe, Lionel

United States

California Classics Books

In essays about American culture and politics, Lionel Rolfe, a scion of the world-renowned musical Menuhin family mixes it up with royalty, revolutionaries, murderers, celebrities and visionaries, in a journey that juxtaposes his uncle, classical master violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and Frank Zappa.

Fat Man on the Left: Four Decades in the Underground

Ghost Towns of the Mojave Desert: A Concise and Illustrated Guide

History

Hensher, Alan

Americas

Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to the 21st Century

Arts & Photography

Henry Roth

Music

Physical description; xvii, 372 p. : music, ports. ; 29 cm. Subjects; Paganini, Nicolò 1782-1840. Violinists - Biography.

Roth, Henry

Publishers Weekly:This brief, useful book illuminates an obscure chapter in the history of Los Angeles and America's socialist movement. Job Harriman was an Indiana farm boy who, by the turn of the 20th century, had become California's most prominent socialist. Harriman clashed with L.A.'s unofficial king, Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis, who hated labor unions. In 1910, an explosion at the Times building killed 20 workers. The ensuing criminal case became a cause celebre, with Clarence Darrow defending the accused unionists. Meanwhile, as socialism grew in popularity, Harriman beat the incumbent in the Los Angeles mayoral primary. But the unionists pleaded guilty shortly before the general election, sabotaging Harriman's candidacy and paralyzing the local and national labor movements. Rolfe ( In Search of Literary L.A. ), researcher Greenstein and Lennon ( The Sagebrush Bohemian ) describe the conflicting evidence regarding Harriman's knowledge of the plea, as well as internal struggles within the left. The book also serves as a corrective to the Times' s distorted history of the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony, a socialist community founded by Harriman in Southern Calfornia's Antelope Valley. Photos.

Bread & Hyacinths: The Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles

Lennon, Nigey

Greenstein, Paul

Photography & Video

The expanded Third Edition. Beyond L.A.'s self-promotional glitter is a hotbed of writers, bohemians, mad poets, exiles and refugees from every form of oppression - and this book tells their stories. The new additions include • bohemian and apocalyptic streams in L.A. writing • the thriving coffeehouse scene, including the new L.A. poets • additional chapters by John Ahouse and Julia Stein 
Among the transients, literary gypsies, bohemians and writers in imposed or self-imposed exile are Oscar Zeta Acosta, Charles Bukowski, Henry Miller, Ken Kesey, Carey McWilliams, Charles Lummis, Jacob Zeitlin, Louis Adamic, Nathanel West, Robinson Jeffers, Malcolm Lowry, Thomas and Henrich Mann, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Aldous Huxley, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, and many others

Literary L.A.: Expanded From the Original Classic and Featuring the Coffeehouse Scene Then and Now

History & Criticism

In her own words, Frank Zappa's younger sister shares her memories of growing up with the iconoclastic guitarist, composer and social observer. Always with characteristic humour, Patrice throws open a long-locked door to reveal the family history Frank kept secret. Features more than 60 previously unpublished photographs.

My Brother Was a Mother: A Zappa Family Album

Zappa, Patrice

Being Frank: My Time With Frank Zappa

Nigey Lennon

Since his untimely death from prostate cancer in 1993, the legend of iconoclastic musician Frank Zappa has continued to grow. The decade following his passing has seen the publication of a number of books, both sacred and profane, which examine his life and work, but the best, and only, up-close-and-personal account of the man and his music remains the original: Nigey Lennonâs Being Frank: My Time with Frank Zappa. Musician/author Lennon maintained a personal and professional relationship with Zappa during the period which is generally agreed to have been the composerâs most creative,Â and she invests her recollections with considerable musical and emotional insight. âIrreplaceableâ¦is the word to describe Being Frankâ¦[Lennon's] memoir is both spiky and musically literateâ¦Lennonâs previous books were on Mark Twain and Alfred Jarry, which indicates the kind of cultural perspective required to get a grip on Zappa: something brighter than rock-journo pedantry.â âBen Watson, author of Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play With new material by the author, a Preface by David Walley (author of No Commercial Potential: The Saga of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention), a Foreword by Greg Russo (author of Cosmik Debris: The Collected History and Improvisations of Frank Zappa), and an Introduction by Candy Zappa. NIGEY LENNON is a composer, performer, and producer and the author of seven published books. She lives in New York.

Biographies & Memoirs

Stern, Phil

Beal, Suzy

Arts & Literature

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