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In the pantheon
of San Franciscans there is no other like Herb Caen. The Sacramento
native was hired by Chronicle editor Paul Smith in the late 1930s at the
age of 20. Smith was a wonderkind who at 26 didn't want to be the youngest
person on the paper's staff. After initially writing sports, Caen became
known in all corners of the City for his man about town column, It's News
to Me, which debuted on July 5, 1938. He continued to chronicle the City
for 58 years, guided by his instincts, his daily deadline, and his love
for San Francisco. With a front seat at the epicenter of the City's politics
and society, the town belonged to him and him to it. There wasn't a coming
or going by a man, woman, or natural phenomenon here that wasn't observed
by Caen and distilled at the Loyal Royal, his
well-worn manual typewriter. With his own brand of nostalgia and reportage
he gave the City a voice nearly as natural
as if the hills had spoken for themselves. In addition to lighter observations
and gossip about visiting celebrities, Caen eloquently and poetically captured
insights about this land and its people like no other writer before or
since. Sometimes controversial, admired by countless readers throughout
the 20th Century, Caen succumbed to cancer in 1997 less than a year after
winning the Pulitzer Prize.
Detail
I
Books by Herb Caen:
Baghdad
by the Bay
Baghdad
1951
One
Man's San Francisco
Only in San Francisco
The
Cable Car and the Dragon
Don't
Call it Frisco
Herb
Caen's New Guide to San Francisco
Herb
Caen's San Francisco
The
San Francisco Book
San
Francisco City on Golden Hills
The
Best of Herb Caen 1960-1975
Herb
Caen's San Francisco 1976-1991
The
World of Herb Caen
Scenes
from Herb Caen's World |
