Piecing together Los Angeles : an Esther McCoy reader / edited and with an essay by Susan Morgan.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. The Journey West -- Patchin Place: A Memoir -- About Malibu -- Outward Journey -- The Death of Dreiser -- 2. California Changes Everyone -- Peter Reyner Banham: 1922-1988: An Appreciation -- The Founding Mother by Reyner Banham -- Schindler, Space Architect -- The California House ... How It Started -- Notes on Greene and Greene -- Charles Greene's Presence -- An Architect Speaks Out [William Gray Purcell] -- Gill's Birthday -- The Dodge House -- Letter from Esther McCoy to Torrance City Council -- Frank Lloyd Wright: 60 Years of Living Architecture -- Conversation with Lutah Maria Riggs, FAIA -- The Office of R.M. Schindler -- Happy Birthday, R.M.S. -- Neutra in California -- Neutra: An Appreciation -- Konrad Wachsmann: Memorial for Wachsmann at USC -- The Second Generation -- Los Angeles: A Private Proving Ground -- 3. The New Face of the 1950s -- Peter Reyner Banham, review of Modern California Houses: Case Study Houses, 1946-1962 -- Arts & Architecture Case Study Houses -- Charles and Ray Eames -- A Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons -- Then and Now [Whitney R. Smith and Wayne R. Williams] -- Architecture West [Harwell Hamilton Harris] -- Recommendation for Harwell Hamilton Harris -- Pierre Koenig -- The Ultimate Climes of John Lautner -- Letter Regarding John Lautner -- Before the Silvers -- 4. Writing and Raking Over the Foibles -- The Important House -- Library Use -- Palms -- Landscape Architecture in the Urban Scene -- Letter from Ray Bradbury to Esther McCoy -- Letter from Esther McCoy to Ray Bradbury -- Letter from Ray Bradbury to Esther McCoy -- Wanted: Architect (Preferably a Dead One) -- If You Don't Want to Get a Loan ... -- Letters to the Editor -- 5. Building, Ambition, and Vision -- A Vast Hall Full of Light, the Bradbury Building -- Architecture West [Hearst Castle] -- Acceptance Speech for Julia Morgan Award -- The Wiltern Theater -- Watts Towers -- Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village -- Those "Crazy" Domes -- Report from Malibu Hills -- Frank O. Gehry -- Dr. Salk Talks About His Institute -- High-Tech Images -- The Blue Bombshell: Pacific Design Center -- Robert Venturi: To Whom It May Concern -- 6. Looking Backward -- On Attaining a Certain Age [Eames House] -- A Love of Small Packages: A Friend Remembers Ray Eames -- Architecture West: News Report [Santa Monica] -- J.R. Davidson -- Something to Wrap the Herring In -- John Entenza: A Memorial -- Lloyd Wright 1890-1978 -- The Rationalist Period -- Letter from Esther McCoy to Richard Weinstein -- Second Guessing Schindler -- Geography as Destiny -- A Who's Who.

"Piecing Together Los Angeles: An Esther McCoy Reader is the first collection of her writing. From fiction for The New Yorker to seminal essays on new architectural forms, the arc of her work sparkles with a passion for the modern. This essential volume includes out-of-print essays, articles, and short stories, as well as hitherto unpublished lectures, correspondence, and memoirs that together illuminate the breadth and complexity of McCoy's groundbreaking work. An introductory essay by writer and anthology editor Susan Morgan provides a lucid conceptual framework for understanding the development and diversity of McCoy's writing and the region that inspired it."--Back cover.