ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AUTHORS OF ANY BOOK such as this are always indebted to many other people who helped make their ideas a reality. Pat Akre, of the San Francisco Public Library, kindly made available numerous I. W Taber photographs, including an exceptional Taber album of Midwinter Exposition views. Richard and Gladys Hansen, supervisors of the Raymond Clary Collection
at the San Francisco History Museum, gave us invaluable help by allowing us access to that rich collection. Alfred Heller, editor and publisher of World's Fair, was kind enough to publish two essays on the exposition that served as the nucleus of the idea for this book. We also wish to thank Marilyn Blaisdell for providing us with copies of a number of the color lithographs used in The Fantastic Fair.
A number of years ago, the authors collaborated with Rodger Birt, Steve Dobbs, Art Hough and Richard Sammons on the production of a half-hour videotape on the Midwinter Exposition, called The Fantastic Fair. A good many of our ideas for the present book can be traced back to that wonderful collaboration. And in subsequent years, Professor Birt has contributed significantly to our understanding of the social and intellectual issues current in San Francisco at the time of the Midwinter Exposition.
Our wives, Jeanie Chandler and Gerry Nathan, read and re-read the manuscript, correcting errors and providing the kind of attention to detail and critique of the overall plan that have immeasurably improved the final manuscript.
Alvin Fine, the founder of San Francisco studies at San Francisco State University, has also been a guiding spirit behind this book. The support of the Alvin Fine Endowment at San Francisco State University has also been crucial for the publication of this book. Timothy Drescher, our photographer and teaching colleague, gave us not only a rich set of visual images to work with, but some excellent advice on the best ways to display them in a text.
And finally, the authors pay their respects to the memory of Raymond Clary, who spent
many years gathering material about the Midwinter Fair.
ARTHUR CHANDLER
MARVIN NATHAN
