The Pardee Carriage House Salon – Aleta George: The Pleasures and Perils of a Literary Pilgrimage

Sunday, July 14th, 2024 at 4 PM

Pardee Home Museum, 672 11th Street, Oakland (Please enter through white gate on Castro St)

$25 per person

Aleta George is a journalist and independent scholar who writes about the nature, history, and culture of California. Her work has been published in Smithsonian, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and High Country News. She is the award winning author of Ina Coolbrith: The Bittersweet Song of California’s First Poet Laureate. She will share her experiences of making pilgrimages to sites important to Ina Coolbrith, the subject of her first biography, and Jack London, the subject of her current project. The book tells how the young Coolbrith slipped into the male-dominated literary world of post-Gold Rush San Francisco where Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and John Muir got their start and how she mentored Jack London and Joaquin Miller. She will discuss the climate and world of some of these writers from the Bay Area at the turn of the 20th Century.
She is currently working on a new book about the long time valet to Jack London – Yoshimatsu Nakata. Nakata is a primary character in her book-in-progress, a place-based biography about London’s formative and lifelong relationship with the San Francisco Bay. Nakata kept journals in 1909 and a later one in 1914. Her hope is that Nakata’s 1914 diary will help tell the story of London’s last, four-month cruise on the San Francisco Bay less than two years before his death.
Yoshimatsu Nakata was Jack London’s right-hand-man for eight years, at the height of the novelist’s prolific career. At the turn of the last century London was one of the most widely read writers in the world. In 1897, already a committed socialist, London dropped out of the University of California after one semester to seek his fortune in the Klondike. He didn’t find gold but did return with vivid impressions that he turned into stories that became bestsellers, including such adventure classics as The Call of the Wild and White Fang.
After the talk, a champagne reception will be offered with sweets and savories.
Please reserve your seat as soon as possible for event arrangements. Reserve on Eventbrite or call Richelle Lieberman at 510-381-1973.

The Carriage House & Garden Salon Continues!

Sunday, August 20th, 2023 – 4:00–6:00PM

 Tickets

672 11th Street, Oakland
(Enter at the Castro Street gate between 11 and 12^th Street)

$25 per person, all proceeds go to the Pardee Home Museum

An event of international intrigue!

We will host John Cha an Oakland resident and author who has written several volumes of biographies about Korean and American leaders. He is also an award-winning translator of Korean literature into English. “Ever since I came to America at age fifteen, I spent most of my life telling people about Korea, her pains and triumphs. I am constantly amazed and pleased that there are so many more stories out there waiting to be told, waiting to be heard.” But, most of all he is a passionate Board member of Mulmangcho Foundation in South Korea, providing learning opportunities to young people who have fled the North.

Two women who escaped North Korea have been in the U.S. studying English for the past 6 weeks. Eunji is a student at Korea National University of Arts, majoring in classic guitar. She is a marvelous musician and will honor us with a performance. Sukyung (Grace) is an English major at Sogang University in Seoul. She wants to be a translator but is also a musician. Their goal is to show that music and education transcend borders by fostering unity and freedom. Both have incredible stories to tell. For all of us who have questions and concerns about North Korea this an opportunity to get an insightful perspective.

Kathleen Cha is Regional President of the League of Women Voters. She is an author, documentarian, playwright, and wife of John Cha will be here to introduce the program.

After the performance there will be a question and answer period followed by a champagne reception. This will be a wonderful opportunity to spend a Sunday afternoon in a lovely garden.

Please reserve your seat as soon as possible by going to Eventbrite at the link provided or by calling Richelle Lieberman at (510) 381-1973.