Beebe

In which we celebrate a San Francisco / Virginia City original

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Been a fan of the cantankerous Lucius Beebe since I first discovered him while combing through old San Francisco Chronicle microfiche docs in the San Francisco State University library.

While searching for information on a topic quite unrelated, I stumbled upon Beebe's columns and was instantly enraptured by the man's skilled, erudite and cutting commentary on every subject of the day.

Eccentric, scathing, tempermental and louche beyond comparison -- he travelled his own, private pullman rail car -- Beebe epitomized elegant, upper-crust, anti-burgeois rage. He was a man's man, a bon vivant, a gourmand and a dandy extraordinnaire.

So my love of well dressed curmudgeons and stylish skpetics was born.

Web chum, Will, has recently discovered the Beebe anthology, The Provocative Pen of Lucius Beebe and groks that meme, too.