How could Upton Sinclair let me down?

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Was it the heat or was it the subject at the ‘Literary California’ panel on Sunday?

The scene was reminiscent of a sweltering Alabama courthouse in summer. I began to stick to the seat, and the audience members were making fans out of newspaper pullouts. I looked up to make sure the panel had water; lukewarm water, check.

Richard Rayner moderated a panel with Anthony Arthur, Philip Fradkin and Judith Freeman--authors who talked about the subjects of the biographies they had written. The stories hearkened back to a golden era of L.A.’s history, a time when the city was growing--thanks in large part to the siphoning of water from the Owens Valley. Is that why the subject may have felt a bit dry?

Freeman spoke about Raymond Chandler, the subject of her biography ‘The Long Embrace’; Fradkin about ‘Wallace Stegner and the American West’ and Arthur about Upton Sinclair, the subject of his book ‘Radical Innocent.’

Somehow the subject didn’t really seem to connect with me--does it connect with the Internet generation?--and sweat began to bead on my eyelids. I struggled to keep my neck from snapping.

I packed up early and opted to watch the remainder of this panel’s discussion from the air-conditioned media center. Viva La C-Span2!

--Brad Wilcox

(Photo: Upton Sinclar, circa 1937, by the Associated Press)