A collection of the author's columns from the "Los Angeles Times" explores the human dramas and comedies that make up daily life in Southern California

Dancing Under the Moon

History

Martínez, Al

Americas

St Martins Pr

A profile of a city by a columnist for the Los Angeles Times offers humorous and compassionate insider's predictions for the twenty-first-century and shares personal observations and anecdotes about Los Angeles.

City of Angles: A Drive-By Portrait of Los Angeles

It's almost a tradition in the city room of The Herald for journalists to collapse at their desks, having worked, imbibed, and smoked themselves into the grave. On these occasions the behavior required by the dead man's erstwhile colleagues -- a group of cynical old news hounds with skin the color of faded newsprint-- is to applaud, simultaneously hailing their fallen comrade and signaling an opening in the city room. It is in this manner that William Colfax, an ambitious young reporter, earns a coveted position as a staff member of this long respected newspaper. Colfax accepts the offer mere minutes after his predecessor's body has been carted away. The Last City Room depicts the decline of an influential newspaper in San Francisco during the turbulent early 60s. As the conservatism of the old guard, led by The Herald's publisher and his bylined minions, clashes with the radical leaders ascending to power in the city, Colfax quickly realizes that the golden days of The Herald are long over. With his past threatening to ensnare him between the two warring factions, Colfax's struggle quickly becomes one of not simply proving himself as a reporter, but of maintaining his independence and integrity as a journalist.The Last City Room is a provocative evocation of a time when the carefully modulated social fabric of the country was just beginning to show signs of uncertainty. It is a tribute to the end of a newspaper and the beginning of a new era.

The Last City Room

Literature & Fiction

United States

Thomas Dunne Books

In I'll Be Damned if I'll Die in Oakland, popular Los Angeles Times columnist and world traveler Al Martinez takes us on a funny, crazy, surprising, and sometimes poignant ride around the globe with his wife, the ebullient Cinelli, and then with his children, his grandchildren and, once, his perplexing dog Barney, scattering love, laughter, and memories all along the way. We journey with them from Africa to China, Greece to Italy, Spain to Austria and beyond, and across the U.S. on a three-month trip from the Pacific to the Atlantic and back again, with Barney barking all the way. It's a trip through time as well as space, as the family grows and the world changes. It's a ride you'll never want to forget.

I'll Be Damned If I'll Die in Oakland: A Sort of Travel Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Jigsaw John

His world is the nightmare underside of glittering Los Angeles- of psychopathic killers, sadomasochistic dungeons, and twilight temples of depravity.

Avon/Books

Rising Voices

Signet

Rising Voices: Spanish Edition

distributed by Hawthorn Books

In 1987, Al Martinez, of the Los Angeles Times, won the prestigious National Headliner Award as the best columnist in the United States, an honor which, in the Award's 54-year history, placed him alongside other American writers such as Damon Runyon, Ernie Pyle, Edward R. Murrow, Stewart Alsop and Mike royko. Also in 1987, Martinez was named best columnist in California by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. The year before in 1986, Al Martinez was voted among the top three essays columnists in America by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. A native Californian, Martinez attended San Francisco State, left to serve as scout and combat correspondent with the 7th Marine Regiment i nthe Korean War, and began his newspaper career with the Richmond Independent, a small Bay Area daily. Three years later, he joined the Oakland Tribune where he was an essay columnist, for eight years before joining the Los Angeles Times in 1984, the year his profiles on three powerful Southern California Latinos helped bring a Pulitzer Prize to the Times for public service.

Ashes in the Rain: Selected Essays

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

TQS Publications

As a 21-year-old Marine sent to the front lines of the Korean War, Al Martinez dispatched letters almost daily to his young bride, Joanne. In battle, he experienced the worst that war can bring, and then he served as a combat correspondent and as writer and editor of his regimental newsletter, the Ridgerunner. After the war, he entered a career in journalism, becoming a featured columnist for the Los Angeles Times where he would earn three shared Pulitzer Prizes. Written from the unique perspective of an obviously gifted, professional writer at the beginning of his career, his letters home capture his experiences eloquently and with depth of understanding as they express the dangers, hardships, fear, friendships, and even humor of life at the front. His vivid, often humorous pen-and-ink drawings portray scenes from the front lines.

I Promise You I'll Be Home: Korean War Letters of a U.S. Marine

McFarland

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Martínez, Al. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Martínez, Al

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Martínez, Al. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dancing Under the Moon

City of Angles: A Drive-By Portrait of Los Angeles

The Last City Room

I'll Be Damned If I'll Die in Oakland: A Sort of Travel Memoir

Jigsaw John

Rising Voices

Rising Voices: Spanish Edition

Jigsaw John

Ashes in the Rain: Selected Essays

I Promise You I'll Be Home: Korean War Letters of a U.S. Marine