Category California Literature
In 1943, MGM released The Human Comedy, a film starring Mickey Rooney as Homer Macauley, a high school-aged telegram delivery boy in the mythical Central Valley town of Ithaca. The hit film was based on a script by Fresno native… Continue Reading →
Carmel-By-The-Sea’s days as a world-renowned (and expensive) tourist destination with a small village feel was still in its future when poet George Sterling came to roam its beaches and explore its forests. After leaving employment in his uncle’s Bay Area… Continue Reading →
We have a small cabin on our property that borders the Tahoe National Forest where sheep spend their summers grazing in a nearby meadow. One day last August, the flock—or the shepherd or the sheep dogs or some wayward wether—decided… Continue Reading →
My dad and I love skiing in the Sierras near Truckee together. Growing up, I’d sometimes get to play hooky from high school on a Friday in the winter to go on a father-daughter weekend adventure. Leaving from Hollister, I’d… Continue Reading →
In 1990, Congress established the 1,200 mile Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in order to commemorate the astonishing 1775 journey of over 240 colonists, men and women of diverse heritage who traveled from northern Mexico in order to… Continue Reading →
In 1930, Herbert Eugene Bolton published his annotated translations of the Juan Bautista de Anza and Pedro Font diaries that recorded their experiences during their 1775 colonizing expedition (as well as letters and diaries of other notable explorers and clergy… Continue Reading →
I don’t know how many times I’ve driven past the Romero Visitor Center at the San Luis Reservoir near Pacheco Pass. It’s at the end of one of those turnoffs, like the nearby one to Dinosaur Point Campground, that don’t… Continue Reading →
Spring in the Central Valley. Just northeast of Los Banos, the Coast Ranges not far distant to the west, fragile looking cotton seedlings push through grayish brown soil, their fibrous product eventually to be harvested in fall. Between this place… Continue Reading →
Recently, The New York Times “California Today” column updated readers on the latest additions to California’s list of official state symbols: On Jan. 1, the pallid bat, or Antrozous pallidus, and the California golden chanterelle, or Cantharellus californicus, joined the… Continue Reading →
Like most Californians, I’m frustrated with the recent extreme weather we’re having in our state and how our changing climate is feeding wildfires burning through the west. According to Cal Fire data and the Western Fire Chiefs Association, some of… Continue Reading →
