Notes from the Living on Respecting the Dead

what it means to be writing a book about Anna May Wong

clipping of Anna May Wong from the Los Angeles Examiner, November 10, 1934

On a hot summer afternoon in Los Angeles this past August — the kind of day where you can feel the crisp California sunshine searing right into your skin — I decided to make a detour. I was leaving Doheny Memorial Library at USC, where I had spent the morning and afternoon looking through clippings and photos of Anna May Wong from…