Ernest Beyl
Photo: Fred Lyon
Ernest Beyl was a San Francisco writer who had long been fascinated by the history of his city and the characters who have made it buzz with excitement. He wrote not only about San Francisco history, but also about food, restaurants, jazz, fly fishing and whatever else struck his fancy. His monthly column for San Francisco’s Marina Times gave him the idea for this book of Sketches from a North Beach Journal.
As a kid he was fascinated by the writer Richard Halliburton, a romantic loner who spent his life on what he called The Royal Road to Romance—title of his first book. Wishing to travel that royal road himself Beyl joined the marines at eighteen which seemed the most practical way to see the world. Following peacetime service in Asia and the Pacific he attended Stanford University and that set him up for a career in journalism. He became a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Mateo Times and later a free-lancer for magazines and newspapers. He did a stint as a Hollywood press agent which led him to Sun Valley, the Idaho ski resort, where he served as publicity manager and where he met an early idol, Ernest Hemingway. He passed April 11, 2018.
Books
