Unseen for years, books written by Army officers contained detailed descriptions of howitzers, mortars, sea-coast artillery, anti-aircraft guns, siege artillery. In a clipped-from a magazine feature article appeared drawings resonant of illustrations in war comic books that long ago her brother hid beneath his bed.
Wedged beneath the cover of an illustrated manual of field artillery was a catalog-clipped reproduction of a painting, in which officers on horseback walked beside wheel-born artillery manned by soldiers, and a band played in the background. Identified in the caption, the artist was French cubist Roger de la Fresnaye.
At the bottom of this top middle desk drawer of the oak desk in the boarded-up studio/workshop at the Hotel California Trail was the December 8, 1941 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle.
