Herb Caen
American newspaper columnist / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Herbert Eugene Caen (/keɪn/; April 3, 1916 – February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love letter to San Francisco"[1]—appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle for almost sixty years (excepting a relatively brief defection to The San Francisco Examiner) and made him a household name throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Herb Caen | |
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Born | Herbert Eugene Caen (1916-04-03)April 3, 1916 Sacramento, California, U.S. |
Died | February 1, 1997(1997-02-01) (aged 80) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Columnist |
"The secret of Caen's success", wrote the editor of a rival publication, was:
his outstanding ability to take a wisp of fog, a chance phrase overheard in an elevator, a happy child on a cable car, a deb in a tizzy over a social reversal, a family in distress and give each circumstance the magic touch that makes a reader an understanding eyewitness of the day's happenings.[1]
A special Pulitzer Prize called him the "voice and conscience" of San Francisco.[2]