Lit Map of San Francisco

By Molly O'Hagan

Understanding San Francisco as a site of the cultural imaginary can often seem a daunting task when already attempting to envision the city in its physical glory. For the artists behind “Lit Map of San Francisco,” the capturing of cultural geography is a necessary step in understanding the true boundaries and districts of San Francisco. The work includes quotes from the following authors and texts:

• Alice Adams (Second Chances – 1988)

• Isabel Allende (Daughter of Fortune – 1999)

• Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – 1969)

• Gertrude Atherton (The House of Lee – 1940)

• Albert Benard de Russailh (Last Adventure – 1851)

• Ambrose Bierce (The Death of Halpin Frayser – 1891)

• Herb Caen (Herb Caen’s San Francisco – 1957)

• Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – 1968)

• Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – 2000)

• Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Dog – 1958)

• Allen Ginsberg (Sunflower Sutra – 1956)

• Andrew Sean Greer (The Confessions of Max Tivoli – 2004)

• Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon – 1930)

• Robert Hass (Bookbuying in the Tenderloin – 1967)

• Bob Kaufman (No More Jazz at Alcatraz)

• Maxine Hong Kingston (China Men – 1980)

• Jack Kerouac (On the Road – 1957)

• Gus Lee (China Boy – 1991)

• Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City – 1978)

• Czeslaw Milosz (Visions From San Francisco Bay – 1975)

• Alejandro Murguia (The Medicine of Memory – 2002)

• Frank Norris (McTeague – 1899)

• Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49 – 1968)

• Ishmael Reed (Earthquake Blues – 1988)

• William Saroyan (The Living and the Dead – 1936)

• John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley – 1961)

• George Sterling (The Cool, Grey City of Love – 1920)

• Robert Louis Stevenson (Arriving in San Francisco – 1879)

• Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club – 1989)

• Michelle Tea (Valencia – 2000)

• Hunter S. Thompson (The Great Shark Hunt – 1964)

• Mark Twain (Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House – 1864)

• Sean Wilsley (On the Glory of It All – 2005)

Each quote is placed on the map to correlate with the setting of the text and/or author. The map allows insight into the ways in which districts like North Beach have been captured in the imagination of readers for generations. While San Francisco is not the only city to be memorialized for its literary geography, this map provides a way for students of “San Francisco Literature” to begin making sense of the politics of the city as captured in some of the most famous and beloved texts. For more information, go to bigthink.org