When did DeDe go to the city?

June 22, 2011 5:31 PM

I'm trying to figure out the original SF Chronicle publication date for a specific chapter from Armistead Maupin's More Tales of the City. A major spoiler inside.

At the end of More Tales of the City, DeDe Halcyon-Day packs up her twins and moves to Guyana in a chillingly effective cliffhanger. I'd like to know when that installment was published in its original form as a daily newspaper serial. Specifically, I'm trying to get a sense of how evident the Jonestown threat was at that time. Got any leads? The Chronicle's online search only goes back to 1995.

posted by roger ackroyd to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Do you have access to Proquest?
posted by Ideefixe at 5:52 PM on June 22, 2011

Response by poster: Apparently not back far enough. (I'm in Los Angeles and "LAPL holdings of Barron's traditional microfilm held at Central Library, 3/7/94 to present.")
posted by roger ackroyd at 5:59 PM on June 22, 2011

Response by poster: Correction: I can use LAPL/Proquest to search the SF Chronicle back to 1985. The original column ran around 1978, though.
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:07 PM on June 22, 2011

I remember reading the columns when they came out, and I think that plot twist happened after Jonestown, so everyone would know exactly why this was a bad thing.
posted by mogget at 6:09 PM on June 22, 2011

You could try contacting Armistead Maupin directly, either through his facebook fan page, or his website.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:38 AM on June 23, 2011