Backstory to the Paris expositions essays
After teaching the “San Francisco” course in the Humanities Department for several years, I resolved to work up a new course: “Biography of a City: Paris.”
Paris, of course, is a far older and more complex city than San Francisco. After some thought about how best to approach and organize the subject, I decided to make a study of the industrial expositions held in Paris between 1798 and 1937 as a kind of anchor for my further explorations in the art, architecture, literature and history of Paris. I was fortunate enough to have the support of Alf Heller, editor and publisher of World’s Fair magazine, for encouragement and a place to publish my work.
