Los Angeles Literary Tour
Los Angeles is renowned for its sun, surf and celebrities, but its writers have spent the last hundred years giving readers different perspectives on the City of Angels. Beloved literary icons such as Raymond Chandler, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, Joan Didion and Walter Mosley have all found ample material here to build engrossing narratives with LA on center stage. Their characters populate the city with dynamic personalities, giving visitors a taste of suspense, mystery and a look into LA’s many faces. Find their works in one of many LA bookstores, then sit back and let these authors take you on a tour of their Los Angeles.
Charles Bukowski’s reputation as a major-league alcoholic has grown to legendary proportions since his death in 1994. But make no mistake: he was also an accomplished writer, as evidenced by his LA-centric novels Post Office, Women and Hollywood, among many others. Often referred to as “the Poet Laureate of Skid Row,” Bukowski focused his attentions on lousy day jobs, dimly lit bars and sometimes sordid, always complicated relationships between men and women.
He knew this side of Los Angeles well. “Since I was raised in LA, I’ve always had the geographical and spiritual feeling of being here,” he said. “I’ve had time to learn this city. I can’t see any other place than LA.”
Bukowski spent much of his early years as a struggling writer, paying his bills as a postal worker, but in the late 60s, an admirer agreed to support the author with a monthly stipend. From then until his death, holed up in a bungalow in East Hollywood (5124 De Longpre Avenue is where he wrote Post Office and Factotum), Bukowski churned out poetry and prose at a superhuman rate, resulting in a mountainous body of work. Much of his LA still exists, from bars and liquor stores he frequented to former residences and Downtown LA's Postal Annex Terminal where he toiled in obscurity.
Raymond Chandler didn't exactly invent the detective fiction genre, but over the years, his name has become synonymous with it. Philip Marlowe, the author’s iconic private-eye protagonist, spent the pages of such noir classics as The Long Goodbye, The Big Sleep and many others navigating his way through Los Angeles.
Chandler’s clipped, hardboiled prose style gives readers a vivid picture of Los Angeles, with narratives often linked by his intricate, labyrinthine plots. His writing has spawned thousands of imitations, parodies and adaptations, but the novels themselves remain at the heart of LA’s literary history.
Also looming large over the noir genre is James M. Cain, whose famed 1930s pulp fiction novels Mildred Pierce and Double Indemnity were largely written and set in the Los Angeles area.
Less well-known than Chandler and Cain, but equally talented, John Fante also chronicled Los Angeles with his semi-autobiographical, 50+ years-in-the-writing “Bandini Saga,” which includes his most famous book, Ask the Dust. Fante set a great deal of his work in the Bunker Hill section of Downtown LA, and his perceptive writing makes a bygone era and its colorful characters come to life.
Los Angeles noir continues to thrive today, thanks to writers such as:
- Walter Mosley (Devil In A Blue Dress)
- Michael Connelly (Echo Park)
- James Ellroy (LA Confidential)
Joan Didion’s no-holds-barred depiction of depression and alienation, Play It As It Lays (published in 1970), stands as one of the classics of LA literature. Some of the novel’s most memorable sections show the main character, an actress named Maria, aimlessly driving up and down the 405 Freeway, providing an evocative metaphor for her life in LA.
Play It As It Lays provides a different vision of the city, but anyone interested in Los Angeles — and the exchange between city and inhabitants — should read the novel. Didion has also written piercing nonfiction about LA, which can be found in her essay anthologies The White Album and Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
LA’s literary scene is still thriving, as local authors wrestle with portraying a locale that’s constantly evolving. Some notable recent LA-based, LA-focused writers include:
- Veronica Gonzales (Twin Time: Or, How Death Befell Me)
- Helen Maria Viramontes (Their Dogs Came With Them)
- Steve Erickson (Zeroville)
- Miranda July (No One Belongs Here More Than You)
It’s a testament to LA’s many personalities that each of these writers offers up completely different, yet completely convincing versions of the city.
Esotouric Tours: See the city that inspired Charles Bukowski, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler and others, with genuine LA experts as your guides.
Bookworm: Michael Silverblatt hosts this weekly radio show/podcast and features interviews with many LA-based authors.
Los Angeles Central Library: One of Downtown LA’s architectural treasures is where a young Charles Bukowski spent many a day in the library’s Central Reading Room.
