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Published May 2012
480 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
San Francisco was the cradle of the 1960s, but also its coffin, giving rise to the Zebra and Zodiac killers, Altamont, Jonestown, the assassination of Harvey Milk, and the AIDS epidemic. And yet San Francisco not only rose from the wreckage of the 1970s, but developed a live-and-let-live tolerance that influenced the entire country.
David Talbot, founder of the San Francisco based web magazine Salon, is uniquely poised to tell his iconic city's story in all its terrible glory. Season of the Witch comes to life with jaw-dropping scenes and a cast of characters that includes the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, Charles Manson, Patty Hearst, the Cockettes, the Hells Angels, Harvey Milk, and the mercurial 49ers coach Bill Walsh. It was with the help of the 49ers, a grab bag team of misfits who mirrored the city itself, that San Francisco gradually reclaimed its spirit.
As Talbot writes, "San Francisco values did not come into the world with flowers in their hair - they were born howling, in blood and strife." This is the wild story of the people and events that shaped the city that continues to shape the nation.
"Starred Review. An ambitious, labor-of-love illumination of a city's soul, celebrating the uniqueness of San Francisco without minimizing the price paid for the city's free-spiritedness… Talbot takes the reader much deeper than cliché, exploring a San Francisco that tourists never discover." - Kirkus Reviews
"Starred Review. Exhaustive research yields penetrating character studies… In exhilarating fashion, Talbot clears the rainbow mist and brings San Francisco into sharp focus." - Publisher's Weekly
"Talbot presents gripping accounts of both crime sprees and football showdowns. Even people who were there might take away something new, and for others, the book offers a comprehensive introduction to the era." - Booklist
"In this wonderful book, David Talbot tells the stories deep in San Francisco's loric landscape, from its cultural greatness to the slides into madness. Talbot explores its volcanic originality with awe and respect. An unforgettable history." - Tom Hayden, author of The Long Sixties
This information about Season of the Witch was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David Talbot, author of the New York Times bestseller Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years, is the founder and CEO of Salon. He lives in San Francisco.
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