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Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018 Audiobook
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A rich mosaic of diary entries and letters from Marilyn Monroe, Cesar Chavez, Susan Sontag, Albert Einstein, and many more, this is the story of Los Angeles as told by locals, transplants, and some just passing through. The City of Angels has played a distinct role in the hearts, minds, and imaginations of millions of people, who see it as the ultimate symbol of the American Dream. David Kipen, a cultural historian and avid scholar of Los Angeles, has scoured libraries, archives, and private estates to assemble a kaleidoscopic view of a truly unique city. From the Spanish missionary expeditions in the early 1500s to the Golden Age of Hollywood to the strange new world of social media, this collection is a slice of life in L.A. through the years. The pieces are arranged by date-January 1st to December 31st-featuring selections from different decades and centuries. What emerges is a vivid tapestry of insights, personal discoveries, and wry observations that together distill the essence of the city. As sprawling and magical as the city itself, Dear Los Angeles is a fascinating, must-have collection for everyone in, from, or touched by Southern California. With excerpts from the writing of Ray Bradbury - Edgar Rice Burroughs - Octavia E. Butler - Italo Calvino - Winston Churchill - Noel Coward - Simone De Beauvoir - James Dean - T. S. Eliot - William Faulkner - Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Richard Feynman - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Allen Ginsberg - Dashiell Hammett - Charlton Heston - Zora Neale Hurston - Christopher Isherwood - John Lennon - H. L. Mencken - Anais Nin - Sylvia Plath - Ronald Reagan - Joan Rivers - James Thurber - Dalton Trumbo - Evelyn Waugh - Tennessee Williams - P. G. Wodehouse - and many more Advance praise for Dear Los Angeles "This book's a brilliant constellation, spread out over a few centuries and five thousand square miles. Each tiny entry pins the reality of the great unreal city of Angels to a moment in human time-moments enthralled, appalled, jubilant, suffering, gossiping or bragging-and it turns out, there's no better way to paint a picture of the place."-Jonathan Lethem "[A] scintillating collection of letters and diary entries . . . an engrossing trove of colorful, witty insights."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“This book’s a brilliant constellation, spread out over a few centuries and five thousand square miles. Each tiny entry pins the reality of the great unreal city of Angels to a moment in human time—moments enthralled, appalled, jubilant, suffering, gossiping or bragging.”
— Jonathan Lethem, New York Times bestselling author
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“Los Angeles is refracted in all its irreducible, unexplainable glory.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“Organized by days of the year, this collection gathers personal writings on historical events like wars and elections alongside observations of everyday life. The book…deepens and expands and flyspecks our view of Los Angeles.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“[A] scintillating collection of letters and diary entries…An engrossing trove of colorful, witty insights.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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About David Kipen
David Kipen was born and raised in Los Angeles. He founded the nonprofit Boyle Heights lending library Libros Schmibros in 2010. He is a former literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts, book editor and critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, and contributor to multiple volumes of California cultural history. He teaches full-time in the writing program of the University of California at Los Angeles. A familiar voice on public radio, he also serves as book critic for Los Angeles magazine and is critic-at-large for the Los Angeles Times.
About the Narrators
Eva Kaminsky is a New York–based actor and audiobook narrator with over 150 titles to her credit. She trained at Boston University and has acted in numerous productions on television and film, including Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Happyish, Ugly Betty, ER, Numbers, Law & Order, and others.
Korey Jackson, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is an actor, known for his roles in the films 37, Life Itself, and Anesthesia. He earned his MFA in acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Luis Moreno, a voice actor, has narrated several audiobooks throughout his career.
Richard Poe, a professional actor for more than thirty years, has appeared in numerous Broadway shows, including 1776 and M. Butterfly. On television he has had recurring roles on Star Trek and Frasier. His films include Born on the Fourth of July and Presumed Innocent. Poe is a well-known and prolific audiobook performer and the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards.
Tom Picasso is a voice over artist, actor, and singer originally from Kansas City. He is currently the voice of COZI TV, a new cable channel from NBCUniversal that premiered in January 2013 where he records all their ads and tags for the network. He can also be heard on the audiobooks for Hal Clement’s Ocean on Top and Ardath Mayhar's YA novel The Door in the Hill. He holds an MFA in Acting from the Case Western University/Cleveland Play House and has appeared in numerous shows off-broadway and regionally.
Morgan Hallett is a New York City-based actress, voice-over artist, and audiobook narrator. She has worked extensively throughout the country and on Broadway. She is an AudioFile Earphones Award winner and has lent her voice to dozens of television commercials, including Time Warner Cable, 7-Up, and Accuvue.
Lynnette R. Freeman is a voice and stage actress from East Cleveland. She is a graduate of Brown University and earned her MFA in acting from the Brown/Trinity Rep Conservatory. She is the narrator of several audiobooks, including The Family Business 3 by Carl Weber and Treasure Hernandez, I’m Doin’ Me by Anna Black, Becoming Mrs. Right by Sherri L. Lewis, and Wife Extraordinaire by Kiki Swinson.
Tavia Gilbert is an acclaimed narrator of more than four hundred full-cast and multivoice audiobooks for virtually every publisher in the industry. Named the 2018 Voice of Choice by Booklist magazine, she is also winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. She has earned numerous Earphones Awards, a Voice Arts Award, and a Listen-Up Award. Audible.com has named her a Genre-Defining Narrator: Master of Memoir. In addition to voice acting, she is an accomplished producer, singer, and theater actor. She is also a producer, singer, photographer, and a writer, as well as the cofounder of a feminist publishing company, Animal Mineral.
Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, director, film producer, and multiaward–winning narrator. He has won several Audie Awards for best narration, including for 2019’s Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was named by Booklist as winner of their 2023 Voice of Choice Award, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, from classics to modern masters, from bestsellers to the inspirational, from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to spine-tingling series, and much more. In television and film, he is best known for his roles in A Murder at the End of the World, The Sopranos, 24, I Shot Andy Warhol, Dinner Rush, and Romeo Must Die. He is also trained in theater and continues to do much work on stage.