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Recommended reading about Venice (some available at Small World Books, 1407 Ocean Front Walk, and/or Beyond Baroque Bookstore, 681 Venice Blvd.):

HISTORY
 

Gentrifying Paradise: Resistance and Removal in 21st Century Venice - James R Smith (2019) Available at Small World Books, Beyond Baroque, Village Well (Culver City), and Amazon.

Abbot Kinney's Venice-of-America, Volume One, The Golden Years: 1905-1920, Carolyn Elayne Alexander (1991)

Arthur L. Reese, "The Wizard of Venice" - Sonya Reese Davis with Jewell Lupoma. (2006)

Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles by Andrew Deener (2012)

Venice West: The Beat Generation in Southern California
- John Arthur Maynard. (1993)

Arnold Springer: History of Venice of America (1992-93)

  • Vol. 1: The Venice Canals, 1850-1939
  • Vol. 2: Annexation and Secession Movements, 1910-1939
  • History of Venice, Book Number Two: 1850-1939 Published 2019

Venice California: Coney Island of the Pacific - Jeffrey Stanton - Donahue Publishing, (1993 & 2005).

A History of the Venice Area - Los Angeles Dept. of City Planning (1969)

100+ Year History of the Japanese American Community of Venice, by Perry Miyake Jr., with Tiffany Yoshikawa Sato & Alexa Giffen - Published by the Venice Japanese Community Center (2010)

POETRY

If The Dead Had Email - By Jim Smith (2011); 2nd Edition published July 1, 2019.- Available at Beyond Baroque and Amazon.

The Dinner Party Before the Revolution (2019) Published Nov. 5, 2019. - Available at Small World Books, Beyond Baroque and Amazon.

100 Years of Venice Poetry:The Great River Outside the Mainstream - History of Venice Poetry and Poets. Inside The Dinner Party Before the Revolution. (Includes 17 mostly new poems about Venice)

Hour of the Moon - By Hillary Kaye (2010)

Philomene Long (the late Poet Laureate of Venice.:

The Ghosts of Venice West - Philomene Long and John Thomas (1994)

The Selected Poems and Prose of John Thomas - Raven Productions.com (2011)

Voices of the Lady: Collected Poems of Stuart Z. Perkoff (available at Beyond Baroque) (1998)

25 Poems - Panos Douvos

Lawrence Lipton:

  • Bruno in Venice West & Other Poems (1976)
  • Rainbow at Midnight

William J. Margolis:

  • The Anteroom of Hell
  • The Little Love of Our Yearning
  • The Eucalyptus Poems (1974)

Wilderness - Jim Morrison (1988)

The Kid in America - Tony Scibella (available at Beyond Baroque) (1985)

two for her - tony scibella & frank rios (1984)

Frank T. Rios:

  • Love From The Darkside (Artword by Saul White) (1994)
  • The Long Way Home
  • The Kid in the Woods (1996)
  • memoirs of a street poet (2002)
  • She And Everything Else That Holds It Together (2004)

Clair Horner:

  • Please Don't Tread On The Bread
  • Please Don't Sit On The Left-Overs
  • Please Don't Stumble Over The Brunch (on your way to lunch)
  • Please Don't Step on the Bacon
  • Please Don't Step on the Eggs Either

DOCUMENTARY

Eucalyptus - Abbot Kinney (1895) Reprint available on Amazon

The Holy Barbarians - Lawrence Lipton Chronicle of the Beat Generation in Venice. Available at Powell's Books online.

Bukowski in the Bathtub - By John Thomas (1997 & 2014)

Venice of America: The American Dream Come True, by Sweet William

The Balcony Café - Douglas Eisenstark (2006)

Venice Beach: California Carnivale - Helen Kolikow Garber (2005)

Call Someplace Paradise and Ghost Town - Pat Hartman. Venice in the late 70s, early 80s. Also available online at Xlibris (includes more information about the book).

The Lure of a Land by the Sea - Delores Hanney

Venice, California: A Centennial Commemorative in Postcards, 1905-2005 - Delores Hanney

Venice California - Carolyn Elayne Alexander. Pictorial history of Venice.

Homeless in Paradise - William G. O'Connell

Venice, California: An Urban Fantasy - Horst Schmidt-Brummer - Grossman Publishers, New York, 1973.

Cottages in the Sun: Bungalows of Venice, California - Margaret Bach and Melba Levick (2010)

Venice,CA: Art and Architecture in a Maveric Community - Michael Webb and Juergen Nogai (2007)

Number Our Days - Barbara Myerhoff - Simon and Schuster, 1978. Book and Academy Award-winning video about the aging Jews on Ocean Front Walk and Israel Levin Center.

North Beach 90291 by Rich Mann

A Sea Shore Memoir - maryjane (2005)

Art Tiles At Venice Beach, A Graphic History: 1904-2001 - Noel Osheroff, Tamie Smith and the Venice Arts Council (2014)

Venice, California, 1904-1930 - Annette Del Zoppo (1978)

Fantasy by the Sea - Tom Moran & Tom Sewell - Peace Press, 1979

The Colorful History of Venice, California Coloring Book - Emily Winters and S.E. Mendelson (1978)

Venice, California: The Illusion of a Future - Barry Wright

Venice Thru the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's - Bob Farrington

Beats, Hipsters, and California Cool: Essays on the Literary Life,Writing, and Other Trifles - Penny Skillman (2014)

Kafka At The Beach - Steve Bevilacqua (2013)

FICTION

Destiny's Consent: (Laura Shepard Townsend)

  • Book One: The Gypsy's Song - (2004)
  • Book Two: Lions and Gondolas - (2012)
  • Book Three: Angel's Flight - (2019)
  • Book Four: Summoning Her Radiance (2021)

Death is a Lonely Business - Ray Bradbury. The famous writer brings his descriptive powers to a novel set in Venice circa late 1940s.(1985)

The Vampire of Venice Beach - Jennifer Colt (2007)

The Circle Bar And Grill - Joseph P. Farnan - Nine Press, Oakland, (2003)

California Gothic - Kristin Herrington (2011)

A Red Brick Building, Ugly As Hell, in Venice, California - Marie-Gisèle Landes-Fuss (1984)

Death in Venice, California - Vinton Rafe McCabe (2014)

windowlight - ann nietzke - Soho (1981)

Venice to Avalon - James Cass Rogers (2004)

BOOKS BY VENETIANS

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties, Tom O'Neil (2019)

Coming soon: Chaos and Disorder: The Wild 2020s, James R Smith (2023)