Los Angeles A to Z An Encyclopedia of the City and County [Paperback]

Few cities captivate the imagination as does Los Angeles. It is the locus of spectaculars: movies, earthquakes, freeways, riots, sunsets. In this fascinating desk reference, Leonard and Dale Pitt have gathered a sweeping array of information on the City of Angels. Bolstering their historical and humanistic approach with scientific and technical information, the Pitts include alphabetically arranged entries on history, geography, automobile culture, sports, movies, current events, architecture, flora, fauna, scandals, biography, the arts, politics, neighborhoods, and ethnic, racial, and religious groups. Quotations throughout provide provocative and amusing tidbits about the city that has been called the fulfillment of the American Dream. Copiously illustrated and wonderfully anecdotal, this is a book for anyone with a question, large or small, about Los Angeles.

It's a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit there. Mark Twain

At heart, Los Angeles is a vast cross-section of the Corn Belt set down incongruously in a Maxfield Parrish setting. Irwin S. Cobb

Hollywood is wonderful. Anyone who doesn't like it is either crazy or sober. Raymond Chandler

Great weather and automobiles. Jamal Wilkes

Leonard Pittis Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Northridge, and author ofDecline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890(California, 1966).Dale Pittis a freelance writer, editor, and indexer.

Los Angeles cannot be contained by any one description or category. Thanks to the ancient miracle of the alphabet, to their wide-ranging scholarship, and to their personal knowledge of this distinctive city, Leonard and Dale Pitt have come as close as anyone to squeezing the breathtaking variety of this multitudinous, complex city between the covers of one book. Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California