HARRIS NEWMARK (1915) : SIXTY YEARS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA : EXCERPT FROM WRITING LOS ANGELES

HARRIS NEWMARK : SIXTY YEARS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 1853-1913

Published in 1915

Pages 40-41)

...The charms of climate and scenery (widely advertised, as I have said, at the Philadelphia Centennial and, later, through the continuous efforts of the first and second Chambers of Commerce and the Board of Trade), together with the extension of the Southern Pacific to the east and the building of the Santa Fe Railroad, had brought here a class of tourists who not only enjoyed the winter, but ventured to stay through the summer season; and who, having remained, were not long in seeking land and homesteads.  The rapidly - increasing demand for lots and houses caused hundreds of men and women to enter the local real-estate field, most of whom were inexperienced and without much responsibility.  When, therefore, the news of their phenomenal activity got abroad, as was sure to be the case, hordes of would-be speculators - some with, but more without knowledge of land-manipulation, and many none too scrupulous - rushed to the Southland to invest, wager, or swindle. Thousands upon thousand of Easterners swelled the number already here; dealers in realty sprang up like mushrooms.... Selling and bartering were carried on at all hours of the day or night, and in every conceivable place; agents, eager to keep every appointment possible, enlisted the services of hackmen, hotel employees and waiters to put them in touch with prospective buyers; and the same properties would often change hands several times in a day, sales being made on the curbstone, at bars or restaurant tables, each succeeding transfer representing an enhanced value...

from
Writing Los Angeles
A Literary Anthology
Edited by David L. Ulin
Library of America publisher
Copyright 2002

WRITING LOS ANGELES - A LITERARY ANTHOLOGY EDITED BY DAVID L. ULIN : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW and READING ALOUD

Writing Los Angeles
A Literary Anthology
Edited by David L. Ulin
Library of America publisher
Copyright 2002


This book held my interest author after author, so editor David L Ulin made some truly wonderful and wise decisions about what authors and what works would best move the visions of Los Angeles we readers behold here through history and individual points of view.  I've had the book in my possession near 5 weeks and loved that I could pick it up, read one entry, and put it back down since things have been so busy for me.

I'll be posting excerpts from this book over the next few months, pages I stuck post-it-note stickies on so I could come back to it.

Something else I did, which I haven't in years, is that I read these passages ALOUD. 
Reading aloud to oneself or an audience is a different experience, isn't it?  How wonderful it would be if there could be a CD of each of these authors reading their own work aloud, but it's impossible because many of them are no longer alive and didn't live in the days of recording readings.  Why not try it yourself?

The book takes you through an 1884 publication to the near present (Writing Los Angeles, circa 2002, was on the NEW BOOK SHELF at my local library) and authors that you never knew or dreamed ever came through or lived in Los Angeles.

As I mentioned in my review of the book "Pasadena" a few months back, I'm one who enjoys reading that is placed in the local one knows; the topography, geology, even the old Thomas Brothers Maps.  Though books often take us to foreign lands and cultures, there's a sense of more involvement when you can say to yourself, "Yes, I know that road."

Each entry in this book has a short orientation about the author and the importance of the particular piece of work which I found important to situate not only the author but the reader.

If you wish to read all my excerpts in the months ahead, try using the Google Search feature embedded in the side bar using the words Los Angeles.

JO DEURBROUCK Quotation

“Writing nonfiction means I tell people's stories for them, not because they're special but because we all are.”


― Jo Deurbrouck

MOP MEN : INSIDE THE WORLD OF CRIME SCENE CLEANERS : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW

Narrative nonfiction : Alan Emmins MOP MEN was a terrific book, sensitive and just gory enough. He was the everyman gonna look at that long dead body, and finally he overcame his gagging reflex and started doing some clean up for cash himself.


I think the recent Costa Concordia cruise ship beaching story, which I follow, might have influenced me in picking this book up from my library new book shelf (even though it was C 2008). You see, the story of the search for drowned bodies off the coast of Italy or on the sunken ship had been in the news almost daily. Nothing has been so newsworthy when it comes to finding drowned bodies since JFK Junior crashed his plane off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.


Alan's experience depends on Neil, who owns Crime Scene Cleaners, Inc. Neil is just the kind of guy who is business minded enough to consider what a top writer could do for his business if he lets him follow him around.

In the end you're not going to learn exactly how they do it, no Murphy's Oil Soap apparently, though elbow grease is in order. Instead you get inside the brains of Alan Emmins; what he's thinking, what he's feelings, and how the experience of cleaning up from murders, suicides, and accidents changes him. Luckily, not for good.


MOP MEN book is C 2004 and 2008 Alan Emmins Thomas Dunn Books
Saint Martin's Press


C Christine Trzyna 2012 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights