Your 2010 National League Champion San Francisco Giants: A Reading List

As we all await the opening pitch for the 2010 World Series at China Basin it’s hard for all of us die hard fans not to remember all the Giants teams of years past. The team has a rich lore to be read about and savored.

The franchise’s 128 year history, both in New York and San Francisco, is documented in The Giants Encyclopedia, a history and compendium of players, managers and broadcasters. In Giants: Collector’s Edition provides a history and statistical overview of the team through 1993 (its 110th anniversary). Fifty Years By the Bay is a 50 year (1958-2007) history of the Giants in San Francisco. Giants Past & Present by free-lance journalist Dan Fost, is a well-illustrated history of the team from its origins to the present.

The Original San Francisco Giants, written by local broadcaster Steve Bitker, is an in-depth look at the Giant’s first season in the City that profiles every player on that team. Game of My Life and Giants: Where Have You Gone? are both books that interview Giants of the past. The former allows players a chance to recall their most memorable games in a Giants uniform; the latter looks at the post-baseball lives of many fan favorites.

Tales From the San Francisco Giants Dugout is a collection of memories of the San Francisco franchise, including the teams successes and failures, but giving perspective on what it means to be a Giants fan. Giants of the Golden Gate is a personal take on the great moments of Giants history.

Magic By the Bay retells the 1989 dual pennant runs of the Giants and the Oakland Athletics that resulted in the Bay Bridge World Series. Splash Hit! tells of the building of Pacific Bell (now AT&T) Park and the sold-out inaugural 2000 season.

For the most devoted of fans, the library’s Magazines and Newspapers Center also has a 16 year run of the Giants Magazine. As part of the Art, Music and Recreation Center reference collection we have more than a decade of the pre-season publication, the Giants Official Yearbook.

We look forward to bringing you next years books celebrating this season’s championship team. Until then...

Go Giants!


Reading List:

Fifty Years by the Bay: The San Francisco Giants 1958-2007 by Chuck Nan (AuthorHouse, 2006).

Game of My Life: San Francisco Giants by Matt Johanson (Sports Pub. L.L.C., 2007).

Giants: Collector's Edition by Joseph Hession (Foghorn Press, 1993).

The Giants Encyclopedia by Tom Schott and Nick Peters (Sports Publishing Inc., 2003).

Giants Magazine (Woodford Pub. and San Francisco Giants).

Giants of the Golden Gate: 50 Gigantic Memories from Five Decades of San Francisco Giants Baseball by A.J. Hayes (A.J. Hayes, 2008).

Giants Official Yearbook (University Sports Publications Co., Inc., 2001-).

Giants Past & Present by Dan Fost (MVP Pub., 2010).

Giants: Where Have You Gone? by Matt Johanson and Wylie Wong; foreword by Jon Miller (Sports Pub., c2005).

Magic by the Bay: How the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants Captured the Baseball World by John Shea and John Hickey (North Atlantic Books, 1990).

The Original San Francisco Giants: The Giants of '58 by Steve Bitker (Sports Pub., 2001).

Splash Hit!: Pacific Bell Park and the San Francisco Giants by Joan Walsh and C.W. Nevius (Chronicle, 2001).

Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout by Nick Peters (Sports Pub., 2003).

Diary of A Lost Girl: from Book to Film

source: Louise Brooks Society

The Louise Brooks film, Diary of a Lost Girl, is based on a controversial and bestselling book first published in Germany in 1905. Though little known today, the book, Tagebuch Einer Verlorenen, was a literary sensation at the beginning of the 20th century. Spirited debate and even lawsuits followed its publication. By the end of the Twenties, it had sold more than 1,200,000 copies – ranking it among the bestselling books of its time.

Was it – as many believed – the real-life diary of a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution? Or a sensational and clever fake, one of the first novels of its kind? This contested work – a work of unusual historical significance as well as literary sophistication – inspired a sequel, a play, a parody, a score of imitators, and two silent films. The best remembered of these is the still revived 1929 G.W. Pabst film starring screen legend Louise Brooks.

A new edition of the original English language translation brings this important book back into print in the United States after more than 100 years. It includes an introduction by local film historian and Director of the Louise Brooks Society, Thomas Gladysz, detailing the book's remarkable history and relationship to the acclaimed 1929 film. This special "Louise Brooks Edition" also includes more than three dozen vintage illustrations.

Thomas Gladysz will screen the Louise Brooks classic and discuss the history of the book to film in the Koret Auditorium on November 14th at 1 p.m.

To accompany this program, the Art, Music and Recreation Center is presenting a display that features rare editions of Tagebuch Einer Verlorenen as well as movie stills and a poster of Louise Brooks. This display located on the Library's fourth floor will be on view through November 21, 2010.

Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s current exhibition, Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, celebrates "the most exciting ballet company of the 20th Century" on the occasion of its 101st anniversary year of inception. Through Diaghilev’s direction, collaborations and interpretation of the "total theater," the Ballets Russes heralded Modernism and reinvigorated ballet by imaginatively synthesizing dance, music and art in each production. Three hundred artifacts from the Company’s early years are on display, including over 80 costumes, set designs, theater backdrops, and props by artists such as Chanel, Picasso, Benois, Braque, Matisse, Bakst, Larionov, and Goncharova.

The contributions of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes to both dance and music are numerous: Many dancers built careers under Diaghilev’s direction and, in general, he elevated the role of male dancer in ballet. The company became known for its ground-breaking choreography in part because Diaghilev supported Mikhail Fokine’s choreographic reforms, supervised the work of fledgling choreographers Vaslav Nijinsky, Léonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska, and was also responsible for introducing to the world the 20-year old George Balanchine (who went on to create ten ballets for the company).

The composers for the Ballets Russe were of equal accomplishment. Diaghilev launched the international career of Igor Stravinsky at age 27 by commissioning The Firebird. He also commissioned other immortal works by Maurice Ravel (Daphnis et Chloé), Claude Debussy (Jeux), Richard Strauss (Die Josephslegende), Erik Satie (Parade), Francis Poulenc (Les Biches) and Serge Prokofiev (Le Pas d’Acier and The Prodigal Son).

Despite the achievements of his dancers, choreographers and musicians, many have argued that Diaghilev regarded his set and costume designers as the true stars of his innovative company. Other visual artist who collaborated with Diaghilev included Georges Rouault, Juan Gris, Maurice Utrillo, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Jean Cocteau, and Naum Gabo, among numerous others.

The finding aid below highlights the most visually interesting books in our collection, featuring the fine artists of the Company. This is not a comprehensive list but instead a starting point for research.


The Art of Ballets Russes: The Serge Lifar Collection of Theater Designs, Costumes, and Paintings at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut by Alexander Schouvaloff (Yale University Press in association with the Wadsworth Atheneum, 1997).

An invaluable guide to the art of the company, this heavily-illustrated book emphasizes the set pieces, backdrops and costumes from the Serge Lifar Collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. This book is organized alphabetically by visual artist’s name, further divided by production title. Each section includes a show synopsis and an essay highlighting historical details of the production, artists’ working methods and their relationships with Diaghilev. Understandably, Bakst and Benois have the most-lengthy entries.

The Art of the Ballets Russes: The Russian Seasons in Paris, 1908-1929 by Militsa Pozharskaya and Tatiana Volodina (Abbeville Press, 1990).

Beyond the introductory essay, this book is primarily illustrated offering season by season chronology of the Ballets Russes productions.

The Art of Enchantment: Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 1909-1929 compiled by Nancy Van Norman Baer ( Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1988).

This catalog accompanied the 1988-1989 De Young museum exhibition. It contains images and essays addressing the work of the artists, as well as an essay on the cross-influences of design and choreography within the company.

La danza delle avanguardie: dipinti, scene e costumi, da Degas a Picasso, da Matisse a Keith Haring a cura di Gabriella Belli ed Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino (Skira, 2005).

In Italian, this book contains over 100 pages of Ballets Russes’ color images. It includes set drawings, costume designs and finished costume photographs for many productions, including the controversial Le Sacre du Printemps (1913), and for Picasso’s Parade (1917) and Pulcinella (1920).

The Russian Theatre: Its Character and History, with Especial Reference to the Revolutionary Period, by René Fülöp-Miller & Joseph Gregor (Lippincott, 1930).

With 48 illustrations in colour and 357 in half-tone. This volume has small section covering the Russian ballet, with sumptuous photographs of Ballet Russes dancers, as well as color drawings, primarily those of Bakst and Benois.

Picasso's "Parade": From Street to Stage: Ballet by Jean Cocteau, Score by Erik Satie, Choreography Léonide Massine by Deborah Menaker Rothschild (Sotheby's Publications, in association with the Drawing Center, New York, 1991).

A thorough examination of the 1917 Ballets Russes production.

Picasso Theatre by Douglas Cooper (H. N. Abrams, 1968).

Includes concept drawings, sets and costumes from Picasso’s Ballet Russes work.

Scenic and Costume Design for the Ballets Russes by Robert C. Hansen (UMI Research Press, 1985).

Few illustrations, but a complete chronology of all productions and the designers who worked on each. Lengthy bibliography of books and articles can be used for additional research.

Rug and Textile Arts: A Periodical Index, 1890-1982

Velvet fragment, Safavid, Iran, 16th century (source: The Textile Museum).

The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. is one of the foremost collections specializing in the textile arts of the world. In addition to their collection of rugs and textiles, the Textile Museum is also the home of the Arthur D. Jenkins Library of Textile Arts.

In 1983 G. K. Hall & Company published Rug and Textile Arts: A Periodical Index, 1890-1982. Like many of the portfolio bibliographies published by G. K. Hall, this volume consists of images from a library's card catalog files. These volume provides a selective index to articles found in over 300 periodicals in their collection, quite a few of which are also part of our collection. This index covers all aspects of textiles, such as costume, dyes and dying, embroidery, fiber art, lace, rugs, twining and weaving. It is particularly useful in exploring these arts in antiquity and in folk and ethnic contexts.

While the organization of this printed source remains useful, today there is more convenient access to this information through the Textile Muse database offered by the Museum. In addition to the author, title and subject access offered by the bibliography, Textile Muse also provides keyword access to the subject.

The print and online resources of the Textile Museum provide an avenue for in-depth research that goes far beyond the library’s catalog and beyond search engines.


Rug and Textile Arts: A Periodical Index 1890-1982 / The Textile Museum, Arthur D. Jenkins Library (G.K. Hall, 1983).

Textile Muse - the database of the Arthur D. Jenkins Library of Textile Arts.

Exhibitions catalogs of The Textile Museum at the San Francisco Public Library.