A Typographic Literary Map of San Francisco, in a Puzzle
From Kerouac to Steinbeck by way of The Mission.
By Maria Popova
This week, I’m in San Francisco for the fantastic Pop Up Magazine, and what better time to dust off a thematic old favorite with a new twist? As a lover of maps in general and literary geography in particular, I was thrilled to learn that John McMurtrie’s fantastic 2009 typographic map of San Francisco literary geography, illustration by artist Ian Huebert, is now available as a jigsaw puzzle. And not just any jigsaw puzzle — a laser-cut wooden jigsaw puzzle.
With 152 pieces and several dozen authors, including Brain Pickings favorites Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain, Philip K. Dick, and John Steinbeck, the cartographic-typographic puzzle is a beautifully designed treat for the lit geek in your life, or in your heart.
The complete list of authors and works:
- 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 in Search of America, 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 Wilsey (Oh the Glory of It All, 2005)
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Published April 26, 2012
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https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/04/26/literary-map-of-san-francisco-puzzle/
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