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One of our CGS members wrote to me with a book recommendation. I love to read, but sometimes it’s hard to find time. That said, the intro she sent was intriguing and so I downloaded the book to my Kindle and had to force myself to put it down to go to sleep.
It’s a historical fiction written by a retired physician from Northern California. It’s based on the life of his grandmother, who lived in San Francisco in the 1920s through Prohibition. I’ll put his summary below, but what catches me is that the stories nearly mirror those told to me by “my” Mariani family who lived there during the same time. Getting different stories, but with the same backdrop makes it come to life even more! I haven’t got to the end, but I do highly recommend. I downloaded on my Kindle, but I’m going to order a couple of “real” copies- one for my library downstairs and one for my local used bookstore!
Here are his words:
My book is titled The Bootlegger’s Daughter: A San Francisco Tale. The book is a historical fiction but based heavily on fact. The book was written based on detailed notes including letters from the 1940’s that my uncle collected and interviews with relatives during the 1990’s and a more recent interview with one of my aunts.
You will find out what is fact vs fiction in the author’s notes at the end. About 85 percent of the family story is based on fact and 100 percent of San Francisco’s history is factual. I had to add some fiction where there were gaps, including conversations.
It is about a girl (my grandmother Ann White born in 1910) the eldest of 6 children born to immigrant parents from Ireland. Her father William White put an illegal still in their family home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood in SanFrancisco in the early 1920’s. He expanded his operation by leasing a home next door where he added a still and kept a mistress. Ann and her sister were tasked with monitoring the stills and delivering their father’s concealed whiskey via a child’s play wagon stacked with dolls, to speakeasies, homes and back room bars. Her father develops severe alcoholism and in a bout of alcohol withdrawal called delirium tremens he cuts one of his fingers off with a hatchet in front of his family. He dies, not too long after, leaving the family poor. Her mother has a mental breakdown shortly after and Ann is left with the aftermath. The story follows her throughout her life having to overcome many challenges with her closest sister.
Like a James Michener novel I weave the city’s history throughout the story through conversations, observations and character placement. It’s not a deep dive but Topics covered include the Gold Rush, Chinese/Irish riots, Emperor Norton and Mark Twain, The Embarcadero, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown including the bubonic plague eradication, Japantown and the origins of the fortune cookie, WWI, San Francisco politics in the early 1900’s, San Francisco Worlds Fairs, Prohibition including its roots, the 1930 fight between Max Baer and Frankie”Campbell” Camilli, The New Deal Program, Dock worker strikes, Lilian Coit and Coit Tower, WWII, The U.N., the Beatniks, The Key System, SF sports, The Beatles concert at Candlestick, The Summer of Love, and the assassination of Mayor Moscone and Councilman Harvey Milk and the subsequent trial of Dan White using the “Twinkie defense”
I am a first time author and a retired family physician ( 29 years). One of my degrees at UCSD was American History and I currently do volunteer work with Placer County Museums and give tours of Old Town Auburn and an old Hotel/ farm house called the Bernhard House.
Helpful Links
Events: https://www.californiaancestors.org/events-and-education/
Special Interest Groups: https://www.californiaancestors.org/special-interest-groups-for-members/
Calendar view: https://www.californiaancestors.org/cgs_calendar/
Tips & Talk: Oakland FamilySearch Center Family History Classes: https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/oakland_california/classes
MAY
2026