- Signed by author
- First Edition
- Hardcover with dust jacket
- Pre-owned, good condition, slight wave/flaw to bottom right corner of jacket
"Wilshire Boulevard is the unofficial Main Street of dreams flowing
through Los Angeles history. Like Los Angeles itself, Wilshire is an
accidental phenomenon created out of civic pride and the yearning of the
masses to drive. Given such illustrious nicknames as the Fifth Avenue
of the West and the Champs Elysees of the Pacific, it's no wonder that
over the years Wilshire has become one of the world's most renowned
thoroughfares. In the pages of Wilshire Boulevard, celebrated author
Keven Roderick tells the remarkable story of the boulevard's development
from a dirt road through a barley field in 1895 to the bustling
fifteen-mile central concourse of the City of Angels. Roderick and urban
anthropologist J. Eric Lynxwiler illustrate Wilshire's style,
architecture and historic prominence with 150 vintage images culled from
private collections and the state's most important archives. The
meticulously researched story and glorious visuals allow readers to
understand Wilshire Boulevard's impact on the world's first
auto-dependent metropolis. Wilshire Boulevard details the thoroughfare's
crucial part in the emergence of Los Angeles as a world-class city and
relates the fascinating story of Gaylord Wilshire, the
turn-of-the-century social gadfly who would have relished his eponymous
avenue's enduring fame. For anyone who has lived the life that is Los
Angeles, Wilshire Boulevard recounts an important past." -- The
Publishers.