Thirsty - by Marc Weingarten (Paperback)

About the Book

"This is a genuine Vireo book"--Title page verso.

Book Synopsis

Thirsty is the history of Los Angeles and its fraught relationship with water.

As a city on the make since the early twentieth century, Los Angeles' resources fought hard to keep up with its unchecked growth. The city's water chief William Mulholland built an aqueduct to grab water over 200 miles away in Owens Valley, but it wasn't enough. Thirsty is the gripping tale of Los Angeles' epic battles for water, the larger-than-life characters that shaped a city's destiny, and the man-made tragedy that killed 400 and forever changed the way water would be harnessed and allocated.

Review Quotes

"...for media cognoscenti, the portions about [Harrison Gray] Otis, his soon-to-be-competitor Boyce and an enterprising delivery man named Harry Chandler will provide added enjoyment."-- "?LA Weekly"

"Marc Weingarten's new book, Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown, neatly encapsulates the complex background of civic battles (the so-called "water wars") between L.A. and the Owens Valley that led up to that moment and which helped to create the sprawling megalopolis we live in now."-- "?LA Weekly"

About the Author

Marc Weingarten is the author of The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Didion, Thompson, Capote, and the New Journalism Revolution and Station to Station. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Details, The Village Voice, and many others. He is also the co-producer of the documentary God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, as well as television's The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. He plays drums and sings in the band California Wildebeest and lives in Malibu with his wife and two daughters.