Description: Up for auction the "San Francisco Chronicle" Herb Caen Hand Signed TLS on letterhead. ES-2452C Herb Caen (/kæn/; 1916–1997) was a San Francisco journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, painful puns and offbeat anecdotes—"a continuous love letter to San Francisco"—appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle for almost sixty years (excepting a relatively brief defection to The San Francisco Examiner) and made him a household name throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Herbert Eugene Caen was born April 3, 1916, in Sacramento, California, although he liked to point out that his parents—pool hall operator Lucien Caen and Augusta (Gross) Caen—had spent the summer nine months previous at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. After high school (where he wrote a column, "Corridor Gossip") he covered sports for The Sacramento Union; in later years he occasionally referred to himself as "the Sacammena Kid". In 1936 Caen began writing a radio programming column for the San Francisco Chronicle. When that column was discontinued in 1938, Caen proposed a daily column on the city itself; "It's News to Me" first appeared July 5. Excepting Caen's four years in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II and a 1950–1958 stint at The San Francisco Examiner, his column appeared every day except Saturday until 1990, when it dropped to five times per week]"more than 16,000 columns of 1,000 words each ... an astounding and unduplicated feat, by far the longest-running newspaper column in the country." Caen had considerable influence on popular culture, particularly its language. He coined the term beatnik in 1958and popularized hippie during San Francisco's 1967 Summer of Love. He popularized obscure—often playful—terms such as Frisbeetarianism, and ribbed nearby Berkeley as Berserkeley for its often-radical politics. His many recurring if irregular features included "Namephreaks"—people with names (aptronyms) peculiarly appropriate or inappropriate to their vocations or avocations, such as substitute teacher Mr. Fillin, hospital spokesman Pam Talkington, periodontist Dr. Rott, piano teacher Patience Scales, orthopedic specialist Dr. Kneebone, and the Vatican's spokesman on the evils of rock 'n roll, Cardinal Rapsong.
Price: 99.99 USD
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
End Time: 2024-12-31T17:55:42.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money back or replacement (buyer's choice)
Signed: Yes
Original/Reproduction: Original
