Silver Lake Bohemia - (American Chronicles) by Michael Locke & Vincent Brook (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Since the early 1900s, Silver Lake has been a magnet for iconoclastic writers, architects and political activists. Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the Hollyhock House for socialist and oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, drew a wave of visionary modernists to the area. Local civil rights advocate Loren Miller spearheaded the fight against housing discrimination. Silver Lake's Black Cat bar and Harry Hay's Mattachine Society were central to the early gay rights movement. Literary artists Anäis Nin and James Leo Herlihy made the neighborhood their home, as did other notables like first lady of baseball Effa Manley and "Hobo Millionaire" James Eads How. Michael Locke and Vincent Brook chronicle these and other people and places that helped make Silver Lake the bohemian epicenter of Los Angeles.

Review Quotes

"For over a century the hills between Hollywood and Downtown have been filled with artists and bohemians. East Hollywood, Echo Park, and especially Silver Lake attracted musicians, movie stars, and activists long before Moby opened his vegan restaurant or Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine ran into each other at LAMill. Two new and incredibly well-researched books from Michael Locke and Vincent Brook, Silver Lake Bohemia and Silver Lake Chronicles, shed light on the long and illustrious history of what Forbes magazine dubbed "America's Hippest Hipster Neighborhood." Trust fund babies, loft parties, and Kenneth Anger are not new to Silver Lake. Check out some of the area's original hipsters." LA Magazine