Chaucer’s Book Signing-Local Historian Cheri Rae

Chaucer’s Books (3321 State Street) will host an in-store book talk and signing for local author Cheri Rae (“A String of Pearls: Pearl Chase of Santa Barbara”) on Wednesday, November 8 at 6 p.m.

Description of ” A String of Pearls…”

 She was the woman who shaped a city. Born in Boston in 1888, raised in Santa Barbara, educated at UC Berkeley, Pearl Chase made Santa Barbara her home and her base—until her passing in 1979. With her keen foresight and forceful personality, she spearheaded the transformation of Santa Barbara from a dreary town to a community of refined architecture, arts and culture, a center of environmental activism, and the birthplace of Earth Day. A String of Pearls, Pearl Chase of Santa Barbara provides an intimate look at he life of a woman whose name is revered in the storied seaside community and whose influence extended throughout California and across the nation.

Pearl’s friends and allies included presidents, politicians, national park directors and Native American activists, all part of her story, told for the first time in this meticulously researched narrative through personal letters, professional correspondence, private diaries, oral histories, and interviews. Each chapter reveals another layer of this complex woman confronting a man’s world; the triumphs and tragedies in her life and work strung together amidst the tumultuous changes of twentieth-century America.

Civic activist and award-winning newspaper columnist Cheri Rae has long blended her resolve to preserve Santa Barbara’s unique environment and architecture with her persuasive writing, and she has led successful efforts to preserve the city’s Bungalow Haven neighborhood. She serves as a board member of the Pearl Chase Society and as editor of The Capital, the organization’s monthly newsletter. She is the author of several books including DyslexiaLand and Walk Santa Barbara, and is currently at work on Bungalow Life, a chronicle of living in a 1912 Craftsman bungalow and protecting a historic neighborhood while faced with modern-day challenges.

Foreword by Denise Spooner, Ph.D., former Executive Director of the Historical Society of Southern California

About the Author Cheri Rae

Ardent civic activist and award-winning newspaper columnist Cheri Rae is the author of more than 300 articles and commentaries about Santa Barbara, and is the longtime editor of “The Capital,” newsletter for the Pearl Chase Society. “Channeling her inner Pearl,” Cheri’s led efforts to preserve the city’s Bungalow Haven neighborhood, historic buildings, and trees.

Equally outspoken on education issues, Cheri spearheads community-wide literacy awareness initiatives. She’s director of the Dyslexia Project, was named a “Local Hero” by the Santa Barbara Independent for her fearless efforts on behalf of students with dyslexia and awarded a Resolution from the California State Assembly for her dyslexia work.

Early in her career, Cheri enjoyed successful stints as a magazine editor, holding key management positions with such popular lifestyle magazine asRunner’s World, Surfer, California Scenic, and Bicycle Sport. Later in her career, two words describe the direction of Cheri’s writing career: worthy causes.

Cheri took up the cause of desert conversation and wrote Mojave National Preserve, which helped rally the public and contributed to a successful campaign that preserved the wonders of the Mojave as national parkland. Her interest in celebrating and sharing Santa Barbara’s unique environment and architecture led her to pen Walk Santa Barbara. Cheri, a nationally known expert on dyslexia, shares her hard-won wisdom in DyslexiaLand, A Field Guide for Parents of Children with Dyslexia.

Cheri lives with her family in a 1912 bungalow in Santa Barbara’s Bungalow Haven, the historic district she helped create through her advocacy. Now at work on a memoir, Bungalow Life, she continues on a path of good works that blend her desire to make a difference and her considerable storytelling skills.