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Frances Dinkelspiel

Author | Journalist | Speaker

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Recent Posts

  • Wildfires ravage Northern California wine country
  • In which I talk (more) about wine fraud, this time on television
  • The city of Whittier has named Tangled Vines as its pick for Whittier Reads 2017
  • Talking about wine, my personal history, and journalism
  • Goodbye 2015, it’s been a great year for ‘Tangled Vines’

Archives

2009 Northern California Book Awards

March 23, 2009 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

http://weberbooks.com/selling/uploaded_images/stacks-711918.jpg I am delighted to report that Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, has been nominated for a Northern California Book Award. The award was established by the Northern California Book Reviewers in 1981 “to honor the work of writers and recognize exceptional service in the field of literature in northern California.”

The non-fiction nominees are:

* Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines, Richard A. Muller, W.W. Norton

* The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment, Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, Island Press

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The Mysteries of the Bestseller List

February 3, 2009 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

http://www.metropolia.co.uk/files/press/upward%20graph.jpg
I was pleasantly pleased to discover that Towers of Gold made the bestseller list of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association this week. Towers of Gold was the #7 bestselling book for the week of January 25.

But I was puzzled, too, since the only event I did that week was at the private Metropolitan Club in San Francisco. I sold about 25 books after my talk, but the books all came from a nearby Borders, which is a chain store. So how did I end up on a list from independent booksellers?

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Update on Towers of Gold

January 21, 2009 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

Did you know there was a thriving Jewish community in El Paso, Texas?
I didn’t, until this review of Towers of Gold came out in the El Paso Times. Apparently
there are three shuls and a Holocaust
Museum
.

 

Daniel Olivas, a Los
Angeles
lawyer, author of four books, and editor of Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California
Literature
writes:

 

Towers of Gold “is a biography that is startling and
engrossing, as well as indispensible to a complete understanding of California‘s development
into a financial powerhouse.”

 

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Ten Things I am Thankful for Concerning Towers of Gold

December 22, 2008 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

 

1)      That
my cousin Warren Hellman and I will be on Michael Krasny’s Forum on KQED on
Tuesday Dec. 23 at 10 a.m. Listen in to hear an original song on Isaias Hellman performed by Warren’s band, the Wronglers. I have listened to Krasny’s show for
years and have always dreamed of being on it.

 

2)      For
all the people who came to my readings – it was great to see so many friends
and to meet so many new people.

 

3)      All
the relatives I have met through the publication of this book

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Going Right to the Heart of Hellman's Financial Empire

December 11, 2008 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

I am heading back down to Los Angeles, where I will give a talk this
evening at Metropolis Books, a small independent bookstore in the heart of the
city’s downtown and banking districts.

I am really looking forward to this reading because the store sits next door to
the building Isaias Hellman constructed in 1905 for his Farmers and Merchants
Bank. It is also the site of his old homestead. He constructed a house here in
1877, one that was so far away from the center of Los Angeles that he gave an
adjacent plot of land to a friend with the caveat he build a house, too. See,
Hellman didn’t want his wife, Esther, and son, Marco, to be lonely living so
far away from everyone else.

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A Parody of Towers of Gold

December 10, 2008 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

http://www.woodburn.k12.or.us/Pictures/Business%20dept/DollarSigns.jpg

In my book on my great-great grandfather, Isaias Hellman, I go on and on (and some say on) about his prescience in backing business partners who would go on to do great things for California. For example, Hellman formed partnerships with the founders of Lehman Brothers, with Harrison Gray Otis, who bought the LA Times, and with the men who jump-started California’s oil industry.

A number of these businesses have failed or are about to fail in the wake of our country’s economic collapse. This is causing a number of financial wizards to scour Towers of Gold to see the next business to collapse so they can do some short selling. (or so says my brother, Steven Dinkelspiel in this scathing critique)

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Back from New York, recuperating

December 8, 2008 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lg6305+manhattan-skyline-new-york-city-henri-silberman-giant-art-print.jpg

Today
is the first day in about three weeks that I can take a breather, relax, and
reflect on all that has happened since Towers of Gold was released a little
more than three weeks ago.

 

All
I can say is: wow!

 

I
never expected this response. I never expected to have so much fun. I never expected
to be so tired.

 

A
few highlights:

 

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Tidbits from the Road

November 25, 2008 by Frances Dinkelspiel Leave a Comment

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014004.jpg

Old Los Angeles

I just spent five days in Los Angeles
and will be home for just 24 hours before leaving for New
Jersey
and New York.

 

I flew into the Burbank
Airport
around 9:30 on
Thursday and was met by Ken Wilson, who is known in the publishing business as
a media escort. Ken’s task was to take me around to area bookstores, introduce
me to store managers, and see if they would either display Towers of Gold more
prominently or order more.

 

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