To mark its 50th anniversary, the Sausalito Historical Society announced the publication of a colorful, updated edition of the seminal Sausalito history book Moments in Time.
The book was edited, researched and designed by Wayne Bonnett, who worked with SHS founder Jack Tracy on the original edition published in 1983.
In a recent oral history, Wayne recalled how he and his wife Linda collaborated with Jack shortly after Wayne joined the Sausalito City Council:
“After I was elected he called me one day and said he wanted to do a book. He knew that I was a book designer and that because I was on the council, I might have a little pull for him. So, I met with him and my wife, who was a book art editor for several major publishers at the time. He said the three of us could make a good team. And Jack, as you probably know, was excellent at gathering material.
He had been working on this project for some time when we got together. But he wasn’t a polished writer at all. So, he gathered the material and Linda kept everything going with the project. And I organized Jack’s notes. He would record by voice. And if you knew Jack, you knew that he tended to drift off the subject, to say the least. And it was all very fascinating, but it had to be assembled.”
That oral history can be heard here.
Wayne and Linda published the book through their firm, Windgate Press, and it has served as a key reference for Sausalito history buffs through five decades. When the second printing sold out a few years ago, the SHS encouraged Wayne to create a new edition, to be released in this, the Society’s 50th anniversary year.
For the new edition, Wayne has added updated material and color illustrations, including a chapter on our floating homes community. Although many historic black and white photos from the original remain, there’s now color on every page plus a lot of new photographs by Wayne and friends. They “took photos that haven’t been seen,” he says. In the text, Wayne identifies six major pivot points that “irrevocably changed the path of Sausalito” and examines them in that context.
A launch party for the new Moments in Time was held at the Ice House on October 21. In the accompanying photo from that event, Wayne Bonnett inspects his painting of the ferry Saucelito, which illustrates the cover of the book.
The coffee-table book is now on sale for $75. For more information or to purchase a copy, contact the Historical Society.