author
Fred Brandt
A lively guidebook writer from the 1920s, he helped capture San Francisco’s charm for visitors and locals alike. His best-known work blends sightseeing, history, and city pride into a brisk portrait of a fast-changing place.
1 Audiobook
Fascinating San Francisco
by Fred Brandt, Andrew Y. Wood
About the author
Little biographical information about Fred Brandt is easy to confirm today, but reliable book records do show him as the co-author, with Andrew Y. Wood, of Fascinating San Francisco, first published in 1924.
That book presents San Francisco as both a travel destination and a cultural portrait, introducing readers to its neighborhoods, landmarks, scenery, and character. Because so few dependable sources preserve details about Brandt’s life, his surviving reputation rests mainly on this snapshot of the city in the early twentieth century.
For modern readers, Brandt’s work is interesting not just as a guidebook, but as a time capsule of how San Francisco wanted to be seen during that era.