This weekend, movie goers in the San Francisco Bay Area will have the rare opportunity to see a historic film few if any have ever seen on the big screen.

On August 27th, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California will screen Leap Year, starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.… Read full post »

These days, Diana Serra Cary lives a quite life in Gustine, California. It's a small town in the Valley south of Modesto and east of San Jose - and not far from Merced where her Father, a one-time cowboy and ranch-hand, worked in the early years of the… Read full post »

Before Greg Mortenson and Three Cups of Tea, before Margaret B. Jones and Love and Consequences, before James Frey and A Million Little Pieces, and even before Clifford Irving and his Autobiography of Howard Hughes, there was Margarete Böhme and The Diary of a Lost Girl.

If you haven't heard… Read full post »

John Updike once told me that Louise Brooks was the finest writer to have ever come out of Hollywood. That was his long-held opinion when I met him in 2006. Updike had reviewed the silent film star’s book of autobiographical essays, Lulu in Hollywood, for the New Yorker in 1982.… Read full post »

Every year since 1982, the American reading public observes Banned Books Week. This year, as in the past, hundreds of libraries and bookstores draw attention to the problem of censorship by hosting events and by creating displays of challenged works. It’s all about creating awareness.

Recentl… Read full post »

In June, the 59 year old writer F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre took his own life. He set his book and paper-filled New York City apartment on fire and died in the resulting blaze. It was an ugly ending to what was certainly a sad, even tormented life.… Read full post »