It's no secret that I love independent bookstores. I am down in Los Angeles and yesterday dropped into the new Diesel Bookstore in Brentwood, even though I had spent the previous two days surrounded by authors and books at the LA Times Festival of Books. Still, I wanted to see what they had and what caught my interest. I almost never pass up a chance to browse in an independent bookstore.

That is why I am so pleased to report that the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association has named Towers of Gold a Best Book of 2009. It won in the regional category against some amazing books, including Philip Fradkin's well-regarded biography of Wallace Stegner. (Above is a poster of the award winners. Towers of Gold is in the middle on the right.)

The people who voted for Towers of Gold are the booksellers who are on the front lines, showcasing new authors and literary writers while fending of the threat from Amazon and other on-line sellers.

My book, a biography of Isaias Hellman, a banker and my great great grandfather, is not an obvious "must buy." While Hellman was nationally-known in his lifetime, he is virtually forgotten today. So when people browse the non-fiction section, they might not take notice of a book about a man of whom they have never heard.

Yet booksellers in the extended Bay Area have been very generous with Towers of Gold, and have recommended it to their customers. It spent a few weeks on the NCIBA bestseller list and is still displayed in many bookstores.

This is the beauty of independents: their owners and clerks are knowledgeable about books and have opinions. I owe much of the success of Towers of Gold to them. Thank you.

For years I have wanted to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which is easily the largest -- and best -- book festival on the West Coast. Each year more than 100,000 people go to the UCLA campus to hear more than 450 authors talk about a range of topics.

It has always seemed to far to travel for a weekend. But when I published Towers of Gold, one of the goals I set for myself was to appear at the festival. Well, I am delighted that the organizers asked me, and once the invitation was extended I had no difficulty committing to the 300-mile journey south from San Francisco.

I will be appearing on a panel Saturday at 3:30 pm titled History:Unknown Los Angeles. The authors DJ Waldie and Chip Jacobs will join me. Bill Deverell, my old Stanford buddy who is now a professor of history at USC and the head of the USC -Huntington Institute for the Study of California and the West, will moderate.

Each of us wrote about a "hidden" history of Los Angeles. Jacobs wrote Smogtown, which explores the impact of pollution on the environment. Waldie wrote a memoir about growing up in an LA suburb. I wrote about the early days of LA, the city's most successful banker, and the role Jews played in the state's development.

Come join us.

I will be doing other events in Los Angeles as well:

April 24 (Friday)

7:00 p.m.

Jonathan Club

545 S. Figueroa St.

Los Angeles, CA



April 25 (Saturday)

3:30 p.m.

Los Angeles Festival of Books

Panel: History: Unknown Los Angeles

With William Deverell, D. J. Waldie, and Chip Jacobs

Haines Hall 39

University of California at Los Angeles



April 26 (Sunday)

3:00 p.m.

Jewish Historical Society of Southern California

Hellman's old Farmers and Merchants Bank

411 S. Main Street

Los Angeles, CA



April 27 (Monday)

6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Julie Robinson Literary Affairs

Westwood Public Library

246 Glendon Avenue

Los Angeles, CA




April 28 (Tuesday)

6:00 p.m.

USC Jewish Alumni Association

Hillel

330 South Hoover Street

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA


They are all going to be fun, but I am particularly excited about the Sunday event. I will be talking in the bank building that Isaias Hellman built in 1905. When I was in LA in December I got to tour the Farmers and Merchants Bank Building, but I think it will be exciting to actually give a speech there. It's at Fourth and Main in downtown Los Angeles.

I am delighted to report that Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, has been nominated for a Northern California Book Award. The award was established by the Northern California Book Reviewers in 1981 "to honor the work of writers and recognize exceptional service in the field of literature in northern California."


The non-fiction nominees are:


* Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines, Richard A. Muller, W.W. Norton

* The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment, Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, Island Press

* A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano, Katie Hafner, Bloomsbury

* Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, Frances Dinkelspiel, St. Martin's Press

* In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, Michael Pollan, The Penguin Press


The nominees in fiction are:


    * Lady Lazarus, Andrew Foster Altschul, Harcourt
      * Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain, Kirsten Menger-Anderson, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
      * The Delivery Room, Sylvia Brownrigg, Counterpoint
      * Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein , Molly Dwyer, Lost Coast Press
      * No One You Know, Michelle Richmond, Delacorte Press
    *

There are other nominations in poetry, translation, and children's literature. I don't know who they are yet.


The 28th Annual Northern California Book Awards will be held Sunday, April 19, at Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin at Grove, at 1:00 p.m. Immediately following the awards, a reception with book signing will begin in the Latino/Hispanic Room at the Library. The ceremony and reception are free and open to the public.


Thank you Northern California Book Reviewers!

I was pleasantly pleased to discover that Towers of Gold made the bestseller list of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association this week. Towers of Gold was the #7 bestselling book for the week of January 25.

But I was puzzled, too, since the only event I did that week was at the private Metropolitan Club in San Francisco. I sold about 25 books after my talk, but the books all came from a nearby Borders, which is a chain store. So how did I end up on a list from independent booksellers?

What made this even more puzzling was the fact that when Towers of Gold was on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list for three weeks in November and December, it wasn't on the NCIBA list during that time. And I know I sold a lot of books at independent bookstores during that period. I did readings at Book Passage, Mrs. Dalloways, A Great Good Place for Books, Copperfields, Readers Books, Clayton Books and Stacey's.

So I sent off an email to Hut Landon, the executive director of NCIBA. And what he told me was surprising.

The NCIBA list is based on reporting from more than fifty bookstores in the northern part of the state. That is considerably more than the Chronicle draws from. The NCIBA polls stores by ratings rather than numbers, so if a book is the third-best selling title in a a variety of stores, it would get that placement on the list.

The Chronicle, in contrast, from what I understand, ranks books according to the sheer number of titles sold in the bookstores it polls. This tends to tilt the list toward authors who are having events since groups come in to hear them and buy at one time.

Landon thinks the NCIBA list shows something different than the Chronicle list:

"Our method rewards titles that are selling in more stores, rather than one where an author has a couple of big events but doesn't sell much elsewhere. So making our list is sometimes harder, but the good news for you is that by making it at all you know that your book is selling "across the board", not just in a few stores."

I did make another list - Kepler's Books - but this one I understand since I did a reading there on Jan. 27.

Of course the big mystery is the New York Times bestseller list and better minds than mine have tried to figure out how they calculate things. The way the list is classified is a trade secret.

Did you know there was a thriving Jewish community in El Paso, Texas? I didn't, until this review of Towers of Gold came out in the El Paso Times. Apparently there are three shuls and a Holocaust Museum.

 

Daniel Olivas, a Los Angeles lawyer, author of four books, and editor of Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature writes:

 

Towers of Gold "is a biography that is startling and engrossing, as well as indispensible to a complete understanding of California's development into a financial powerhouse."

 

I have been somewhat remiss at posting my reviews and interviews, so here are a few more:

 

Nextbook, the on-line Jewish magazine, writes about Isaias Hellman here.

 

Here is the podcast of my interview with Michael Krasny on KQED's Forum

 

I am going to be doing some more speaking engagements in the coming weeks:

 

 

I will be at the Metropolitan Club on Sutter Street in San Francisco at 10:30 am on Thursday Jan. 22, 2009

 

I will be at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park on Tuesday Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m.

 

I will be at the Stanford Women's Club of the East Bay on Thursday Jan. 29, 2009 at 10 am,

 

I will be at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco on Thursday Jan. 29, 2009 at 7:30 pm.

 

1)      That my cousin Warren Hellman and I will be on Michael Krasny's Forum on KQED on Tuesday Dec. 23 at 10 a.m. Listen in to hear an original song on Isaias Hellman performed by Warren's band, the Wronglers. I have listened to Krasny's show for years and have always dreamed of being on it.

 

2)      For all the people who came to my readings - it was great to see so many friends and to meet so many new people.

 

3)      All the relatives I have met through the publication of this book

 

4)      For getting the chance, via radio, to talk to people in Montana, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere

 

 5)      That I am on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list for a third week

 

6)      That the San Francisco Chronicle named Towers of Gold a notable Bay Area book of 2008.

 

 7)      That Towers of Gold made the Marin Independent Journal bestseller list for two consecutive weeks. That really means that one of my favorite bookstores, Book Passage, is selling a lot of copies

 

8)      That Towers of Gold has sold so well it is going into its second printing

 

 

9)      That after 8 years of working on this book, it is out in the world.

 

10)  That Isaias Hellman's contribution to the creation of California will now be noted

I am heading back down to Los Angeles, where I will give a talk this evening at Metropolis Books, a small independent bookstore in the heart of the city's downtown and banking districts.

I am really looking forward to this reading because the store sits next door to the building Isaias Hellman constructed in 1905 for his Farmers and Merchants Bank. It is also the site of his old homestead. He constructed a house here in 1877, one that was so far away from the center of Los Angeles that he gave an adjacent plot of land to a friend with the caveat he build a house, too. See, Hellman didn't want his wife, Esther, and son, Marco, to be lonely living so far away from everyone else.



The house Isaias Hellman built in 1877.



What the same intersection looked like in the early 20th century. The building on the corner is the Farmers and Merchants Bank. The L-shaped building wrapped around the bank is the Isaias W. Hellman Building, a large office building.

Hellman's brother Herman built this office building on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles around 1903. It is known today as Banco Popular.

The current owners of the bank and office building (now converted to lofts) are going to give me a tour before my talk. They also own the popular Pete's Cafe across the street, where there is a delicious Hellman burger on the menu.

In advance of my arrival, the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles gave Towers of Gold a great review.

 

In my book on my great-great grandfather, Isaias Hellman, I go on and on (and some say on) about his prescience in backing business partners who would go on to do great things for California. For example, Hellman formed partnerships with the founders of Lehman Brothers, with Harrison Gray Otis, who bought the LA Times, and with the men who jump-started California's oil industry.

A number of these businesses have failed or are about to fail in the wake of our country's economic collapse. This is causing a number of financial wizards to scour Towers of Gold to see the next business to collapse so they can do some short selling. (or so says my brother, Steven Dinkelspiel in this scathing critique)

Here's the news:

Associated Press....Dateline December 8, 2008...With the announcement today of bankruptcy filings for the Tribune Company, the media conglomerate purchased just twelve months ago by Chicago real estate tycoon Sam Zell for a then-record $8.2 billion dollars, investors on Wall Street have turned their attention to a recently published book about the early days of California's financial history. "Towers of Gold", author Frances Dinkelspiel's first book, is an examination of the life of Isaias W. Hellman, the author's ancestor who was one of California's first bankers.  Dinkelspiel describes Hellman as having a kind of  "Midas touch", with many of his financial involvements leading to success for some of California's most storied businesses, including Wells Fargo Bank (WFC) and the oil fields of Southern California.  But what strikes interested parties on Wall Street has not so much been the engaging story of Hellman's triumphs, but rather how - since the book's publication - the author's choices of examples for these triumphs have proved to be a kind of dell knell for the cited businesses.

"When the book came out just after Lehman Brothers went under, we felt sorry for the author about the timing of it all." said Robert Zemakism President of St. Martin's Press, the publisher of "Towers of Gold."   "Dinkelspiel had trumpeted the association between Hellman and Meyer Lehman (who were brothers-in-law).  However, by the time the book was available to readers,  this relationship had a different historical context with the disappearance of Lehman Brothers from the roster of Wall Street investment banks. " 

It seemed nothing more than a quirk of circumstance when the law firm of Heller, Ehrman - a century old San Francisco institution which had been founded by Hellman's sons-in-law - abruptly announced its closure just days before "Towers of Gold" hit bookstores.   And few attributed the plummeting price of crude oil to Dinkelspiel's praise of Hellman's involvement in that industry.

But with today's announcement that the Tribune Company - the parent company of the Los Angeles Times - has filed for bankruptcy, investors are turning to "Towers of Gold" for more than an insight into the practices and personalities of California's early experience in the banking industry.  They are looking for hints about the next institution that may fail without notice. "It is uncanny how Dinkelspiel has managed to identify early those companies that are suffering the most in our current economy," said Thomas Steyer, Managing Partner of Farrallon Capital, a hedge fund known for its risky and successful bets on companies headed for bankruptcy.  "The book talked about how prescient Hellman was to lend money to Otis Chandler, the founder of the Times, and less than thirty days after publication they file for bankruptcy.  I plan to scour Dinkelspiel's book for more ideas about investments that are sure to go south."

In recent days, the impact of "Towers of Gold" has been felt throughout California.  An unprecedented rash of foreclosures of Tahoe shoreline real estate has proved inexplicable and the announcement from the City of Seal Beach, California that it only has funds on hand to last through the end of the year has stunned local residents.   In another ironic twist, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival founded by Hellman's great-grandson (and Dinkelspiel cousin) F. Warren Hellman announced that due to financial difficulties it was changing its name to "Occasionally, Sort of Bluegrass" and moving to an all-synthesized musical format.  "I am going to kill my cousin,"  announced Warren Hellman.  "You can take my money, but don't mess with my music," he implored.

Dinkelspiel was unavailable for comment.  

Today is the first day in about three weeks that I can take a breather, relax, and reflect on all that has happened since Towers of Gold was released a little more than three weeks ago.

 

All I can say is: wow!

 

I never expected this response. I never expected to have so much fun. I never expected to be so tired.

 

A few highlights:

 

I went to give a talk at A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland last night (Dec. 6) As soon as I walked in, Kathleen, the owner told me she had sold more than 30 copies of Towers of Gold just that day.

 

By 7:15 the store was so full it was standing room only. People were lined up to buy books. It was a great crowd who knew a lot about California history.

 

In contrast, I spoke earlier in the day at the San Francisco Public Library. I think that talk set the record for the number of people it put to sleep.

 

On Sunday, the Chronicle named Towers of Gold a Literary Pick and called it a "superb biography." Wow again.

In New York, I was a guest on the Joe Franklin radio show.

 

Joe Franklin is a show biz personality. He hosted one of the first TV talk shows, which ran on television for 40 years. He apparently has interviewed more than 300,000 people. He now has a daily show on Bloomberg Radio's "Lifestyles" segment.

 

For some reason, Franklin invited me to be on his radio show. I entered the studio to find a man in his 90s who was as charming and personable a person as I have ever met. He told me had had interviewed Charlie Chaplin, five presidents and now me! What a sweetheart.

 

 

Other Observations:

Worst attended talk: San Francisco State. There were six people in the room, including me. One was the professor who invited me, one was the book seller, leaving three members of the audience. Oh well. At least two bought books.

 

Best attended: At Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, CA. There were about 110 people in the audience. I don't think anyone fell asleep. This was a rancho that Isaias Hellman bought with partners in 1881. The people there really knew their history. This one was pure pleasure.

 

The one that made me most proud: The Huntington Library, hands down.

 

The most informative talk: At the California Historical Society. The wonderful staff of the North Baker Library went through my book and brought out documents I had cited. Those attending could see Hellman's report card from Germany, letters to his wife and son, and much more.

 

The most jarring moment: Going from the glow of discovering I was on the San Francisco Chronicle best seller list to my agent's office on Park Avenue in New York City. As soon as I walked in I realized that as well as my book was doing in California, no one was noticing it in New York. Not that he wasn't enthusiastic. But I could tell.

 

I was also an Amazon addict for a while. The review of Towers of Gold came out in the Los Angeles Times on Saturday Nov. 29 and the San Francisco Chronicle review came out on Sunday Nov. 30. After that, (and before, if I am honest) I was addicted to Amazon, something that authors are warned against. I will share, though.

 

Sunday Nov. 16, in the morning, five days after Towers of Gold is released, with minimal press attention:

 

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,108 in Books 

 

Sunday Nov. 24th in the evening, after appearing on the Larry Mantle Show, an NPR show in Los Angeles:

 

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,944 in Books

 

Nov. 30, in the morning, a day aftter the review in the LA Times

 

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,166 in Books

 

Later that same day, after the SF Chronicle review:

 

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,179 in Books 

 

Around 5:24 pm eastern time:

 

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,106 in Books 

 

Around 10:10 pm eastern time:

 

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #669 in Books

 

That's the highest i got, but I think it's pretty good.

 

 

It's not over. I talk at Clayton Books on Tuesday and then at Metropolis Books in Los Angeles on Thursday.

 

 

 

Old Los Angeles

I just spent five days in Los Angeles and will be home for just 24 hours before leaving for New Jersey and New York.

 

I flew into the Burbank Airport around 9:30 on Thursday and was met by Ken Wilson, who is known in the publishing business as a media escort. Ken's task was to take me around to area bookstores, introduce me to store managers, and see if they would either display Towers of Gold more prominently or order more.

 

Ken clearly knows his stuff, for he was greeted warmly into almost every bookstore we entered. I came with an armful of books to give away, so Ken would always try to determine the name of the staff's history buff, so I could tell him or her about Isaias Hellman and give them a free book to read.

 

People in the bookstores got all excited about Hellman and the book since he played such an integral role in the development of Los Angeles. It was gratifying to see their eyes light up and realize that Towers of Gold could be a great holiday present, too.

 

One thing that struck me about Los Angeles was the dearth of independent bookstores. We visited Vroman's in Pasadena and Book Soup, but all the other stores were either Borders or Barnes and Nobles. And they are everywhere. Clearly the bookstore business in Los Angeles is much different than the one in the Bay Area. If I just think about my neighborhood independent bookstores, I come up with Mrs. Dalloways, A Great Good Place for Books, Pendragon, a sci fi bookstore on Claremont, and Diesel Books. Those are all within a 5-10 minute car drive.

 

In the middle of the day, I stopped in at the Huntington Library, where I was the featured speaker for a brown bag lunch put on by Bill Deverell, who runs the Huntington - USC Institute for the Study of California and the West. This is a great place that is trying to bring together academics, journalists and independent historians to use primary documents to explore Western history. (Sound familiar?)

 

Anyway, this luncheon was really fun. Bill Deverell asked me a few questions and I just talked about Isaias Hellman. I really emphasized some of the stuff in my book that I feel is original research, such as Hellman's influence on Henry Huntington, the man who built the Pacific Electric red cars and other trolley lines. Few other audiences would have been so interested in the arcane parts of the book, but this group had detailed questions.

 

On Friday, I taped an episode of the Connie Martinson Show. Connie is an LA institution, having produced a television show on books for decades. The taping was in the Topanga Canyon offices of Time Warner Cable (soon to close) and I had to drive through this moonscape-like environment to get there. Huge rocks, much like the ones at Joshua Tree, loomed up in patches of burned earth. It was surreal. The show will be broadcast in December.

 

Friday night was the night I have been waiting for. I gave a presentation at the Huntington Library in San Marino. About 40 or 50 people came to my talk (not bad for a Friday night) and I think I entertained them with my photos of old Los Angeles and San Francisco. (For those of you who are curious, I wore my new Donna Karan suit.) I signed books and the Huntington sold out!

 

That was also the case Saturday morning when I gave a talk at Rancho Los Alamitos, once a 26,000 acre ranch owned by Hellman and the Bixby family. More than 100 people came to hear me, and the ranch sold out of the 50 books it had ordered. The audience members were history lovers, and so I really got to indulge in description of early LA and rancho life and the ways Hellman contributed to the region's growth.

 

Are you tired yet? I was, yet I had a lot more to do. That evening my cousins hosted a book release party for me at their beautiful home in Brentwood. Lots of Hellman descendants came, people who did not actually know one another well. There was also a man whose family came from the same small town in Germany as Hellman. I also got to meet Kevin Roderick, who runs the fabulous, must-read blog LA Observed. (I must read it two or three times a day)

 

After a day of rest, I drove back to Pasadena, where I appeared on "Airtalk" with Larry Mantle. This is a very popular show on KPCC 89.3, and lots of book lovers apparently listen in. Mantle told his listeners that Towers of Gold "was a must read for any lover of Los Angeles history." You can listen to our interview here. With that ringing endorsement, I watched my Amazon standing go from #22,000 in books to #2,944. Radio is powerful.

 

Happy, but tired, I am back home, but just briefly. Thanks to everyone who came out to hear me and who bought books.