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 Logo: San Francisco Chronicle |
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.
Books by Herb Caen:
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Copyright 2001 - 2002 Hank Donat |