Dune Child

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. California Studies. DUNE CHILD will be of interest to historians (California history) and child therapists. It tells the story of an artistic and bohemian community that existed in the dunes near San Luis Obispo during the Depression. John Steinbeck came there to read from Tortilla Flat and Ella remembers following him to a hobo camp; Ansel Adams and Edward Weston came to shoot photos for a journal called Dune Forum, and Ella followed them on their photography expeditions. Ella's father, Dunham Thorp was Upton Sinclair's press secretary when Sinclair ran for governor of California, and Ella was on hand as well as the two men discussed strategy��he found Sinclair annoying, he felt similarly with respect to her.