Louise Brooks at the San Francisco Public Library

On November 14th, I will be speaking about my new "Louise Brooks edition" of The Diary of a Lost Girl at the San Francisco Public Library. This sensational / controversial / bestselling 1905 book by Margarete Bohme has been out-of-print in the United States for more than 100 years. I brought it back into print and wrote a 20-plus page introduction detailing its remarkable history and relationship to the 1929 G.W. Pabst film starring Louise Brooks. This special event (on LB's birthday) will take place in the Koret auditorium.

Should all go according to plan, I will give a short 10-15 minute talk (with power point presentation) before a screening of the celebrated 1929 film. Copies of my new bookwill also be for sale in the lobby. A booksigning will follow the screening.

I am expecting a good crowd, as I've heard back from many friends & fans and notices have already appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle website, the BookForum website, and on Facebook, Craigslist, Yelp, MySpace and elsewhere. The Koret Auditorium holds 235 people.

The good folks at the SFPL have also been promoting the event. They put up a small exhibit on the fourth floor, and a larger than life portrait of Louise Brooks fill one of the light boxes on that same floor (as pictured above). It's hard to miss and looks lovely. Here are some pictures of the display, which is made up of mostly vintage material from my collection relating to the original book. Do check it out!

I can also report that the SFPL has four copies of The Diary of a Lost Girl in their collection, and each and every one of them are out on loan - and, two of those copies have holds placed on them. Someday, this little book might just prove popular. I have also heard that a local reading group which adopted the book as their November selection will be attending the November 14th event.

 

I hope to see some of you there. If you haven't already gotten a copy of The Diary of a Lost Girl, its available through Lulu.com as well as other online retailers.

San Francisco origins of Lulu

On Monday, I wrote a piece for examiner.com about researching local history online. My local library, the San Francisco Public Library, recently announced on one of its blogs that a number of city directories and other old books and records had been uploaded to the wonderful Internet Archive.

To see a list of these newly available documents and other content scanned from the San Francisco Public Library, follow the link http://www.archive.org/details/sfpl.

These newly available documents join a number of other works of interest at the Internet Archive. As one can guess, these directories are a great source of historical and genealogical information. Looking around as I love to do, I came across some interesting and obscure informations regarding the origins of "Lulu."

Did you know that the German playwright Frank Wedekind has San Francisco roots? Wedekind, of course, is the author of both Spring Awakening (the basis for the popular Broadway rock musical) and Pandora’s Box (the basis for both the 1929 Louise Brooks silent film, as well as Alban Berg’s 1937 opera).

During the early years of his life, Wedekind's father served as physician. A progressive democrat, he also participated in the 1848 Revolution, and next year escaped to America, where he made a fortune in land speculation. In San Francisco he married Emilie Kammerer, a singer and actress twenty-three years his junior. (Some scholars have speculated that this relationship might have served as a kind of model for the relationship between Lulu and Dr. Schon in Pandora’s Box.)

A search of the newly available city directories for 1858, 1860, and 1862 reveals that the future playwright’s Father, Friedrich Wilhelm Wedekind, had a medical practice at 136 and later 524 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. Doctor Wedekind was also a prominent member of the local German General Benevolent Society as well as President of the local German Club.

Friedrich Wilhelm Wedekind and Emilie Kammerer’s second child – the future writer, was conceived in San Francisco - though born in Hanover, Germany. Early in the pregnancy, the patriotic couple decided to return to their native land. And that’s where Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (named for the free-thinking American revolutionary - and later known simply as Frank) was born in 1864.

I was able to find additional information about the Wedekind's San Francisco sojourn utilizing these newly available online documents. Thank you SFPL. Thank you Internet Archive.