San Francisco's Literary Significance

So I got a San Francisco Literary Map from Dave Egger's Pirate Store on Valencia in the Mission. Here are some points of literary interest, some that I had no idea bout! (Ernest Gaines lived and wrote here and Maya Angelou grew up here). It was pretty cool to walk on their streets and to find this great resource at 826 Valencia. Next year in my Elective: "New York City Through Literature, Film and Art," I'd like my students to creat a literary map of New York, similar to this one. Maybe we could mass produce them and get it published! A kid could do the illustrations, etc. Well, that's just a thought in the works.

Points of Literary Interest in San Francisco (taken from SF Literary Map):

1. Alice B. Toklas Place , one block away from her birthplace.

2. Beatitude Magazine's birthplace, Greenwich and Grant

3. Black Cat Cafe, 710 Montgomery
Steinbeck wrote and drank here in the 1920's and 30's

4. Former Home of the Co-Existence Bagel Shop, 1398 Grant Avenue
Beats hung out and got into trouble here

5. Former Home of the Golden Era, 732 Montgomery St.
Mark Twain wrote for this weekly paper.


6. Hunter S. Thompson's former apartment, 318 Parnassus Avenue
He wrote Hell's Angels here

7. Jack London Alley
Right near his birthplace on Third St. at Brannan

8. Kay Boyle's former home
Modernist writer lived and entertained here.

9. Neal and Carolyn Cassady's house, 29 Russell St.
Jack Kerouac lived in the attic

10. Robert Frost Plaza, California at Market
He was born in San Francisco!! Who knew? About his hometown he wrote: "Dust always blowing about the town/ Except when sea-fog laid it down."

11. Former location of the Six Galleryy, 3119 Fillmore St (this is no longer a viable address on the street)
Allen Ginsberg first read HOWL here in 1955.

12. Post Street
Maya Angelou grew up in a fourteen room house here.

13. Divisadero Street
Ernest J. Gaines (wrote A Lesson Before Dying) lived and wrote in a second floor apartment here.

N.B. It's important to mention that the photo in this entry was taken on the street where Allen Ginsberg first read Howl in 1955. The address 3119 Fillmore no longer exists (as me and my cabbie figured out) but this was where the actual Six Gallery stood.