Yorba Linda History


Historic Documents

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close this bookJessamyn West Collection
View the documentJessamyn West McPherson Wins More Literary Laurels With Quaker Stories
Yorba Linda Star December 29 1944 page 3
View the documentJessamyn West most published story writer
Yorba Linda Star July 20 1945 page 1
View the documentJessamyn's first book out soon
Yorba Linda Star October 12 1945 page 1
View the documentJessamyn West's new book is among those offered at Yorba Linda Library
Yorba Linda Star November 23 1945 page 2
View the documentJessamyn West sells movie rights to book
Yorba Linda Star April 19 1946 page 3
View the document"Those Good Old Days" by One Who Can Really Tell It
by Jessamyn West McPherson,
Yorba Linda Star October 17 1947 page 1
View the documentJessamyn West Reminisces On Early Days in Yorba Linda
by March Butz,
Yorba Linda Star October 24 1957 page 3
View the documentFormer Residents Gain National Fame
Yorba Linda Star August 23 1967 page 2
View the documentJessamyn West is city's other famous resident
by Gisela Meier,
Yorba Linda Star January 6 1979 page 2
View the documentJessamyn West comments on Star's article about her
Yorba Linda Star January 27 1979 page 2
View the documentJessamyn West dies of stroke at age 81
Yorba Linda Star March 7 1984 page 5

Jessamyn West comments on Star's article about her

Yorba Linda Star January 27 1979 page 2   Open this page in a new window

(Editor's note: An article about author Jessamyn West and her former home in Yorba Linda was published in the Jan. 6 edition of the Star. A copy of this issue was mailed to West, who wrote the following reply.)

Thank you for sending the "Star" with the picture of the house in which I lived through college days and from which I was married. It's the only picture I have of it - and it hasn't changed much in 50 plus years.

I did solicit advertising for the "Star" when i worked for it in 1923-24 - but my important job, I thought, was writing the "Social Notes." So, the first writing for which I was paid was done for the Yorba Linda Star.

The house in which I lived longer and which my father built, stood (still stands, I think) at the east edge of the tract. My father, Eldo R. West (Superintendent of the Yorba Linda Water Company for some years) was no carpenter and that two-story house on a hilltop had to be propped on the west side by planks when the Santa Ana blew. Beds on casters on the second floor left tracks on the uncarpeted floors as they rolled forward and backward as the Santa Ana gusts hit the house. On occassion of very bad blows, the children were put to bed in the weir box - which as yet was just a cement box with no water flowing into it. In this house Merle was born.

Another book of mine which has a Yorba Lida background is "Cress Delahanty." A number of the short stories are also Yorba Linda based: "Love, Death and the Ladies Drill Team," and "The Mysteries of Life in an Orderly Manner."

I have a new novel coming out this fall - "This Life I Really Lived," and after that - a memoir, "Double Discovery."

I was happy to read the names of Viola Bemis and Ruth McDonald. At my age, those who were young when I was have for the most departed this earth.

Sincerely and with best wishes,

Jessamyn West

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