HILLINGER'S CALIFORNIA: Stories from All 58 Counties

Capra Press, Santa Barbara, CA (1997). Very Good/No Dust Jacket. SIGNED and INSCRIBED by author (to a friend in Oakland, Alameda County) Octavo, softcover, VG in b & w pictorial wraps. Foreword by Bob Hope. Over 150 charming and irrepressible stories covering all 58 California counties, drawn from a variety of likely and unlikely sources, including such vignettes as: a visit with Jack London's daughter; a chilly excursion into California's Switzerland; a profile of Death Valley's good Samaritan; Christmas in Yosemite; a look at that empire known as Disneyland; a view of Mt. Shasta, the sacred mountain; trips to an iron zoo, a Samoan cookhouse, a ghost town, a moaning cave, a mystery house; along with many more delights. Hillinger elaborates on the myths and legends that have grown up around particular people and places of California, along with profiles of famous characters associated with the state, such as Robert Louis Stevenson. But it's not the rich and/or famous that make this book so enjoyable -- it's the quirky descriptions of strange and surprising nooks and crannies throughout the state that many people in those very counties may not know about. These are beautifully rendered human interest stories by the author. 284 pp.