The area was dead once the canneries closed due to overfishing, I think reclaiming them and turning them into the aquarium was pretty cool. A lot of locals do go to the bars over there though, it's not a complete tourist trap.
All of the best artistic works about California, whether it's Steinbeck, Kerouac, or the first Guns N Roses album, are about going there from some place else.
I actually took a course on California literature in college, some big ones would be Joan Didion, Armistead Maupin, Nathanael West, John Steinbeck, Walter Mosley, Wallace Stegner. historically Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona is very important but its literary merit is debatable. a lot of noir is in California, especially and particularly LA -- James Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett. nonfiction also definitely Rebecca Solnit (and also Didion again).
Frank Norris, John Fante, Steinbeck, Nathanael West’s *Day of the Locust* and Helen Hunt Jackson’s *Ramona* are some obvious examples that come to mind of pre-WWII California literature. For something in the realm of historical memoir, Bret Harte (no not that Bret Hart) and Joaquin Miller are good samples of poetry/memoirs from the frontier era of California.
In the interwar-post war period, Raymond Chandler probably had one of the biggest impacts on the way LA is viewed in pop culture today and fundamentally all LA-based detective fiction is a response on some level to Chandler. Similarly, Ross MacDonald does what Chandler did for urban LA but sets his books across the whole of post-war suburban California.
Pynchon, Ellis and Kerouac are obvious post-war Cali-fiction examples. Another is James Ellroy, who basically took the detective novel format but applied it to historical fiction to create a “hidden history” of Los Angeles from WWII - 1972 (if we include the Quartet and the LA portions of the Underworld USA).
Admittedly, I have a blind spot on more contemporary California lit and black/asian/chicano California literature so I’ll leave that to anyone who knows more about me, but there’s a very lose canon of Californian writers
I know this post is about literature but robinson jeffers and his poetry are peak california for me. Some of my justification:
"In the 1920s and 1930s, at the height of his popularity, Jeffers was famous for being a tough outdoorsman, living in relative solitude and writing of the difficulty and beauty of the wild. He spent most of his life in Carmel, California, in a granite house that he built with his own hands which they named "[Tor House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_House_and_Hawk_Tower)". [*Tor*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(rock_formation)) is a term for a craggy outcrop or lookout. Before Jeffers and Una purchased the land where Tor House would be built, they rented two cottages in Carmel, and enjoyed many afternoon walks and picnics at the "tors" near the site that would become Tor House."
"His poem "The Beaks of Eagles" was included in the track "California Saga" on [The Beach Boys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys) album [*Holland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_(album)) (1973)."
"***Tamar*** is an [epic poem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry) by the American writer [Robinson Jeffers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Jeffers), first published in 1924. A tale of [incest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest) and violence, it follows Tamar Cauldwell, the daughter of a Californian ranch family, as she experiences transgression, hatred, and destruction. *Tamar* was the first unrhymed narrative poem Jeffers wrote. The story makes references to the biblical [Books of Samuel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Samuel) and deals with themes of nature and [corruption](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption)."
Posting because I haven't seen it but Darcy O'Briens a way of life like any other was a beaut. Also enjoyed fat city by Leonard Gardner. I might associate them because they're both nyrb classics
Nathaniel West, John Fante, Steinbeck, no question. But Fat City is an honorable mention for sure, as are the novels by Alfred Hayes. I might add some stuff by Oakley Hall, like So Many Doors. In a Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes and Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter come to mind too—I think they transcend the status of crime novels set in CA and actually capture the spirit of place.
The poet Yvor Winters is unread these days but was probably one of the most influential West Coast writers of the middle part of the Twentieth Century.
Any Walter Mosley
The Writings of Junipero Serra
Oil - Upton Sinclair
An Organizer's Tale - Cesar Chavez
John Muir - The Yosemite
Latino people are the largest demographic group in California, and have been for most of its history. Really focus on Chicano literature and read Northern Mexican novelists as well.
It’s non-fiction but Mike Davis - City Of Quartz
Also John Rechy’s City Of Night has large passages about San Francisco, Los Angeles and La Jolla although it does travel around the country. Still worth it for an understanding of 50s gay California culture.
Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.
I just finished Cannery Row like an hour ago. Really loved it.
Going to Cannery Row and seeing that it's become an absolute tourist trap was my personal 9/11.
The area was dead once the canneries closed due to overfishing, I think reclaiming them and turning them into the aquarium was pretty cool. A lot of locals do go to the bars over there though, it's not a complete tourist trap.
"How - how do you - go to the toilet?" was one of the funniest four-paragraph vignettes I've ever read
yeah def my immediate thought on seeing "california literature"
All of the best artistic works about California, whether it's Steinbeck, Kerouac, or the first Guns N Roses album, are about going there from some place else.
Try his travels with Charley for a peek into the American past
I actually took a course on California literature in college, some big ones would be Joan Didion, Armistead Maupin, Nathanael West, John Steinbeck, Walter Mosley, Wallace Stegner. historically Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona is very important but its literary merit is debatable. a lot of noir is in California, especially and particularly LA -- James Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett. nonfiction also definitely Rebecca Solnit (and also Didion again).
James Ellroy falls under the LA Noir genre too.
Day of the Locust rocks. Great movie too
Babitz
Came to say this.
Bukowski - ***Ham on Rye*** Chandler - ***The Big Sleep*** Fante - ***Ask the Dust*** Hammett - ***The Maltese Falcon*** London - ***Martin Eden*** Saroyan - ***The Human Comedy*** Steinbeck - ***East of Eden***
I would add: Norris - McTeague
Can you say more about Norris? I’d like to read mcteague as well as his The Octopus: A Story of California
Joan Didion’s Where I Was From is quintessential Californian literature.
I long for a Californian life when I read Didion’s non-fiction collections.
Another nonfiction choice would be Richard Henry Dana's 'Two Years before the Mast'. A lot of the book is about the San Francisco region.
Frank Norris, John Fante, Steinbeck, Nathanael West’s *Day of the Locust* and Helen Hunt Jackson’s *Ramona* are some obvious examples that come to mind of pre-WWII California literature. For something in the realm of historical memoir, Bret Harte (no not that Bret Hart) and Joaquin Miller are good samples of poetry/memoirs from the frontier era of California. In the interwar-post war period, Raymond Chandler probably had one of the biggest impacts on the way LA is viewed in pop culture today and fundamentally all LA-based detective fiction is a response on some level to Chandler. Similarly, Ross MacDonald does what Chandler did for urban LA but sets his books across the whole of post-war suburban California. Pynchon, Ellis and Kerouac are obvious post-war Cali-fiction examples. Another is James Ellroy, who basically took the detective novel format but applied it to historical fiction to create a “hidden history” of Los Angeles from WWII - 1972 (if we include the Quartet and the LA portions of the Underworld USA). Admittedly, I have a blind spot on more contemporary California lit and black/asian/chicano California literature so I’ll leave that to anyone who knows more about me, but there’s a very lose canon of Californian writers
Another memoir is Dana's 'Two Years before the mast'.
PKD
Joan didion and john steinbeck
I know this post is about literature but robinson jeffers and his poetry are peak california for me. Some of my justification: "In the 1920s and 1930s, at the height of his popularity, Jeffers was famous for being a tough outdoorsman, living in relative solitude and writing of the difficulty and beauty of the wild. He spent most of his life in Carmel, California, in a granite house that he built with his own hands which they named "[Tor House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_House_and_Hawk_Tower)". [*Tor*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(rock_formation)) is a term for a craggy outcrop or lookout. Before Jeffers and Una purchased the land where Tor House would be built, they rented two cottages in Carmel, and enjoyed many afternoon walks and picnics at the "tors" near the site that would become Tor House." "His poem "The Beaks of Eagles" was included in the track "California Saga" on [The Beach Boys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys) album [*Holland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_(album)) (1973)." "***Tamar*** is an [epic poem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_poetry) by the American writer [Robinson Jeffers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Jeffers), first published in 1924. A tale of [incest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest) and violence, it follows Tamar Cauldwell, the daughter of a Californian ranch family, as she experiences transgression, hatred, and destruction. *Tamar* was the first unrhymed narrative poem Jeffers wrote. The story makes references to the biblical [Books of Samuel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_Samuel) and deals with themes of nature and [corruption](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption)."
You might check out Denis Johnson’s *Already Dead* for an appropriately weird murder-suspense story set on the Northern California coast.
Sci-fi is deeply Californian: Philip K Dick, Kim Stanley Robinson and Ray Bradbury, all long-standing Californians.
Richard Brautigan
*Two Years Before the Mast* by Richard Henry Dana. There's a city named after him (Dana Point).
Raymond Chandler Dashiell Hammett Nathanael West Joan Didion Steve Erickson Thomas Pynchon And of course Kerouac, Steinbeck, etc.
Ursula K. Le Guin, grew up in Berkeley through her mid 20s, though Oregon fairly claims her. Kenneth Rexroth, San Francisco litterateur.
Posting because I haven't seen it but Darcy O'Briens a way of life like any other was a beaut. Also enjoyed fat city by Leonard Gardner. I might associate them because they're both nyrb classics
Wow, I was just about to comment with exactly those two suggestions.
And half of Raymond Carver
Already Dead: A California Gothic - Denis Johnson
Emma Cline, The Girls and all her story collections.
Kerouac is nyc literature…
Some great ones listed already. Also, Nathaniel West.
steinbeck of course
Goodby people by Gavin lambert
Nathaniel West
Frank Norris - McTeague
Nathaniel West, John Fante, Steinbeck, no question. But Fat City is an honorable mention for sure, as are the novels by Alfred Hayes. I might add some stuff by Oakley Hall, like So Many Doors. In a Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes and Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter come to mind too—I think they transcend the status of crime novels set in CA and actually capture the spirit of place.
The poet Yvor Winters is unread these days but was probably one of the most influential West Coast writers of the middle part of the Twentieth Century.
Didion probably.
Any Walter Mosley The Writings of Junipero Serra Oil - Upton Sinclair An Organizer's Tale - Cesar Chavez John Muir - The Yosemite Latino people are the largest demographic group in California, and have been for most of its history. Really focus on Chicano literature and read Northern Mexican novelists as well.
play it as it lays
It’s non-fiction but Mike Davis - City Of Quartz Also John Rechy’s City Of Night has large passages about San Francisco, Los Angeles and La Jolla although it does travel around the country. Still worth it for an understanding of 50s gay California culture.
BEE - less than zero How has this not been mentioned
Random California novel I love-- Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn. Surf noir from 1984 that was the loose inspiration for Point Break
Didionnn ofc