For the professional ice hockey player, see Herb Cain.
Herb Caen
Caen in 1994
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
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.
"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]
^ ab"The 1996 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Special Awards and Citations. Biography.". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
^"The 1996 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Special Awards and Citations. Citation.". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 1, 2013.
media related to HerbCaen. Wikiquote has quotations related to HerbCaen. Portals: San Francisco Bay Area Biography Chronology HerbCaen's first column...
travel. The term "beatnik" was coined by San Francisco Chronicle columnist HerbCaen in 1958, as a derogatory label for the followers of the Beat Generation...
County).[citation needed] Baghdad by the Bay – title of a book of essays by HerbCaen, and a nickname he used for the city because of the cosmopolitan cultural...
Bon Vivant". SF Gate. Caen, Herb. "HERBCAEN -- Once Upon a Deadline". SFGATE. Retrieved 2024-01-10. Caen, Herb. "HERBCAEN -- What Is This Thing Called...
that would push us up the evolutionary ladder. Jay Stevens In June 1967, HerbCaen was approached by "a distinguished magazine" to write about why hippies...
for as long as this situation continued, he would not be satisfied". HerbCaen, Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, became...
resurgence of the suffix -nik in the English language. The American writer HerbCaen was inspired to coin the term "beatnik" in an article about the Beat Generation...
newspapers have collected them. The San Francisco Chronicle columnist HerbCaen reported irregularly on reader-submitted gems, including a substitute...
Road: "The Earth is an Indian thing." The term "beatnik" was coined by HerbCaen of the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958, blending the name of...
Edward Bennett Williams Stewart Alsop Ben Bradlee William F. Buckley Jr. HerbCaen Walter Cronkite Jason Epstein Rowland Evans Katharine Graham Harold Hayes...
sea. At the time of her death, the San Francisco Chronicle columnist HerbCaen wrote "In this strangely flat era of 'diversity,' she was the rarest of...
coining the term "Twinkie defense". The day after the verdict, columnist HerbCaen wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle about the police support for White...
Fong was made famous by columnist HerbCaen, who often described the misanthropic Fong during his visits to Sam Wo. Caen would interview Fong on matters...
such columnists as veteran sportswriter Prescott Sullivan, the popular HerbCaen, who took an eight-year hiatus from the Chronicle (1950–1958), and Kenneth...
hanging out in bathrooms." Milk contacted a newspaper. Several days later, HerbCaen, a columnist at The San Francisco Chronicle, outed Sipple as gay and exposed...
board of Sotheby's. Her home was dubbed the "San Francisco Embassy" by HerbCaen. In 1987, she and her husband founded the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation...
coffeehouse and nightclub owner, poet, actor, and hipster. Newspaper columnist HerbCaen called him the "King of the Beatniks." Corpulent, standing 6 feet 7 inches...
poets, and photographers have long been inspired by the fog, including HerbCaen, Jack Kerouac, August Kleinzahler, and Arthur Ollman. Sam Green made a...
several times recently." "San Francisco Bay Guardian Issue 02.04". 1967. "HerbCaen made Carol Doda a fixture in his column". San Francisco Chronicle. 12...
"Friscophobia" to newspaper columnist HerbCaen, whose first book, published in 1953, was "Don't Call it Frisco." Caen was considered by many to be the recognized...
Students Need Athletics, Culture and Kicks (a phrase thought up by columnist HerbCaen), was a benefit concert held in San Francisco on March 23, 1975. Playing...
received frequent favorable coverage from San Francisco Chronicle columnist HerbCaen and other local newspaper and television reporters. However, the Temple...
Pulitzer Prize Winners". New York City: Pulitzer Prize Board. 1978. "HerbCaen". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 3, 2018. "Announcement of the 2019...
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