Author and Ultimate Bookshelf contributing editor David Kipen digs for treasure in a bibliography of L.A. fiction — and celebrates the 'ghost novels.'
once said of “Paradise Lost” — “no one ever wished it longer.” But if just one category could be added to the lineup, I’d know exactly which to suggest: an annual award for writing about Los Angeles.
Alas, my favorite old L.A. book didn’t get a single vote for the Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf. Years ago, at a sparsely attended Sacramento library book sale, I bought “An Annotated Bibliography of California Fiction, 1664-1970.” Beyond my copy and a couple more allegedly available online, only a single footnote to the endlessly erudite “Literary Destruction of L.A.” chapter in Mike Davis’ “
” proves that this book even exists. The BCF presents alphabetical listings and brief descriptions of, purportedly,in the Golden State over three centuries. Lord knows what compulsion possessed Newton D. Baird and Robert Greenwood of Talisman Press, in El Dorado County’s Georgetown, Calif., to create this freakish compendium in 1971.
Leaving aside the rest of California, the BCF still lists hundreds, maybe even a thousand, books’ worth of L.A. fiction. It includes no rankings, no ratings of any kind, just a tantalizingly brief phrase or paragraph about every one. And each of the BCF’s 521 pages screams exactly one thing:
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