Book notes

Yeah, the photo is familar. I ran it in March — but it's a great downtown image from 1923, showing the old Farmers and Merchants Bank that still stands at 4th Street and Main (and several other familiar downtown survivors.) And it's in the news. Berkeley author and Ghost Word blogger Frances Dinkelspiel has sold to St. Martin's Press her book about the bank's founder, her great-great grandfather. Towers of Gold: Isaias Hellman and the Creation of California will be published in 2007. She writes that Hellman was one of three men who donated the land for USC, was president of the Jewish congregation that became Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and when he died in 1920 was president of Wells Fargo Bank. If you like the photo, check it out full-sized at the LAPL site.

Also: 826LA, the non-profit founded by Dave Eggers and located in the SPARC building in Venice, announces publication of Rhythm of the Chain: Young Writers Explore Teamwork, written by students of Animo Inglewood Charter High School. Lakers coach Phil Jackson provides the introduction. Jackson will do a private reading and signing with the students on June 23 at the campus.