Patt Morrison and All Saints Church

I'm making another Lo-Cal swing in June, and I'm pleased to add two more events to that trip: a conversation with Patt Morrison (KPCC, 89.3) and a talk at All Saints Church in Pasadena, both on June 16. Patt Morrison and All Saints Pasadena are two very impressive Southern California institutions. (See www.pattmorrison.com and www.allsaints-pas.org for details on their efforts and achievements.)

Rothmann Show Tonight

I'll appear on John Rothmann's show tonight on KGO (810 AM) at 1:00 a.m. to discuss Carey McWilliams and American Prophet. We should have a lot to talk about. Rothmann worked on Nixon's 1968 campaign, and McWilliams followed Nixon's career closely if unsympathetically. Rothmann is also interested in the Jewish experience in America, which McWilliams treated in Brothers Under the Skin and A Mask for Privilege.

Michigan Daily Excerpt

The Michigan Daily ran an excerpt of the book. Here's the link.

Book Excerpt: American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams - The Statement

Gigs Update

Here's the flapjaw schedule (and past events) for American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams.

Saturday, June 17--Dawson's Book Shop, 535 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, 2:30 p.m. Open to public.

Friday, June 16--All Saints Church, Pasadena, 7:00 p.m.

Friday, June 16--Talk of the City with Patt Morrison, KPCC, 89.3 FM, 2-3 p.m.

Thursday, June 15--Bonnie Cashin lecture, UCLA, 4 p.m. Open to public.

Sunday, April 30--The John Rothmann Show, KGO, 810 AM, 1:00 a.m.

March 30--Black Oak Books, Berkeley.

March 1--Morning Review with Gabriel Gutierrez, KPFK, Los Angeles.

February 28--Huntington Library, San Marino. Sponsored by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West.

February 27--Oxnard Public Library.

February 27--Cal State Northridge. Sponsored by the Chicana/o Studies Department.

October 3, 2005--Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco.

September 21, 2005--California Studies Lecture, UC Berkeley.

May 21, 2005--The Sleepy Lagoon Case, Constitional Rights, and the Struggle for Democracy: A Commemorative Symposium, UCLA. Sponsored by the Chicano Studies Research Center, the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, and the Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

April 6, 2003--All Saints Church, Pasadena.

Next Radio Gig

Just received an invitation to appear on KGO's John Rothmann show to talk about Carey McWilliams and American Prophet. The show is scheduled for Sunday, April 30, at 1:00 a.m. That's cutting pretty deep into the cocktail hour, but duty calls. If you're up late that Saturday night, give it a shot at 810 on the AM dial.

Black Oak Books Tonight

I'll be at Black Oak Books tonight (1491 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley) at 7:30 along with Peter Schrag and Ethan Rarick. Peter has a new book out, California: America's High-Stakes Experiment, and Ethan's bio of Pat Brown, California Rising, is out in paperback. Both books are from UC Press. We'll each offer some brief remarks on California and its history and then have some Q&A.

Peter turned me on to McWilliams in 1999, and I'm looking forward to meeting Ethan, who now works at Berkeley's Institute for Governmental Studies. I have a soft spot for this bookstore, too. I lived around the corner throughout graduate school and was a regular customer.

A gigs update: I'll be at Dawson's Book Shop in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 17. This is another venerable institution. I met its proprietor, Michael Dawson, at a book signing for LA's Early Moderns (Balcony Press, 2003), which he co-authored.

Horowitz Review

Irving Louis Horowitz, professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers, has weighed in on American Prophet and Victor Navasky's A Matter of Opinion in the Sewanee Review. McWilliams is described as a "solid native American radical" who "remained his own man," and I am credited for telling his story "earnestly and honestly" and handling McWilliams's stance on communism with appropriate nuance. Victor, his book, and The Nation under his guidance don't come off quite so well, though he is credited with treating the magazines's editorial lineage with more depth and detail than I did. (True.)

I received the review as a paper copy from my publisher, so I don't have a link or even a citation to pass along.

Norman Solomon

I'm pretty sure Carey McWilliams would be speaking out against the Iraq war, among other things, and the constellation of deceptions and atrocities surrounding it. And right now I'm listening to Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy, on KPFA--he's speaking at an anti-war rally in Walnut Creek tomorrow. It looks as if Norman will be a P3 author, so I'm especially glad to hear him speaking out on this issue.

More Fante--and Steve Cooper

The L.A. Times review drew an email from Stephen Cooper, who wrote Full of Life: A Biography of John Fante (North Point Press, 2000)--highly recommended. I met Steve while working on the McWilliams book; we had dinner at Musso-Frank's on Hollywood and Vine just to complete the retro L.A. effect. He teaches English at Cal State Long Beach--great guy. Robert Towne's film version of Ask the Dust is getting some press now--big write-up in the San Francisco Chronicle's Datebook section, for example--so I'm hoping the movie will drive readers to the novel and Steve's superb bio.

Very Impressed ...

...with Kate Julian's review of American Prophet in the Los Angeles Times. She really put her finger on McWilliams's unique gift and contribution, I think--great selection and emphasis. David Ulin wrote an excellent piece on John Fante's Ask the Dust this week, too, so I hope these critical efforts will direct readers to these two Los Angeles writers, who happened to be close friends. Certainly the Times is doing its part.