Moderators

Mark Arax

Mark Arax is a journalist and author whose bestselling books on California have been compared to the "great social portraits" by William Saroyan and Joan Didion. His Los Angeles Times investigative stories in the late 1990s revealing state sanctioned murder and cover-up in California prisons were praised by The Nation as "one of the great journalistic achievements of the decade." The author of "In My Father’s Name" and co-author of "The King of California," Mark’s most recent book, “West of the West,” is a collection of “sure and supple essays” about the Golden State that garnered this praise in the Atlantic Monthly: "It is Arax’s personal connection to the land that pushes his collection past mere reportage to a high literary enterprise that beautifully integrates the private and idiosyncratic with the sweep of great historical forces."      

Additional Information

Website: http://www.mark-arax.com/books.htm

• West of the West - Dreamers, Believers, Builders, And Killers In The Golden State - Mark Arax
• The King of California: JG Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire - Mark Arax & Rick Wartzman