Bohemia in Southern California

Bohemia in Southern California, edited and with an essay by Jay Ruby, is a richly illustrated anthology that explores alternative life styles and artistic endeavors of Bohemians of all stripes in the Southland. The book includes essays by Jessica Holada, Mark Thompson, Daniel Hurewitz, Genie Guerard, Naima Prevots, Richard Hertz, Katherine Stewart, Pablo Capra, Kristin Lawler, William Mohr, Rachel Rubin, and Harry Polkinhorn. Taken collectively, they suggest that when la vie bohéme arrived in the land of sunshine, a unique way of being unconventional was created. The classical Western bohemias of Paris, New York's Greenwich Village, and the North Beach community of San Francisco were complemented by a rich flowering of individual and group experiments in creative living and the production of art. The fully illustrated book contains essays by scholars in literature, cultural studies, anthropology, librarianship, the book arts, history, psychoanalysis, the performing arts, and others that provide a uniquely multidisciplinary approach. This captivating and wide-ranging volume takes readers on a compelling tour, from the Arroyo Seco and Edendale communities, earlier in the twentieth century, to the beach communities of Malibu; from coffeehouse culture, surfer enclaves, and 1960s counterculture to the explosion of artistic and bohemian scenes several decades later in Venice, Laurel Canyon, downtown Los Angeles, and the Santa Barbara hillsides.

Research Key Terms:

BOHEMIANS BOHEMIAN CULTURE CALIFORNIA HISTORY HISTORY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CULTURAL STUDIES MEMOIR