D.J. Waldie has been quietly documenting the soul of Los Angeles from an unlikely perch: the deputy city manager’s office in Lakewood. Now, with his latest book “Elements of Los Angeles: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire,” the acclaimed essayist continues his singular meditation on a city of contradictions.
The 176-page work, published September 2 by Angel City Press for $45, explores Los Angeles through the classical elements, weaving together diverse threads from the Hass avocado’s unlikely history to the catastrophic 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster that killed at least 431 people.
“Nobody ‘sees’ L.A. with more eloquence than D. J. Waldie,” wrote Susan Brenneman, Los Angeles Times deputy op-ed editor.
Waldie, who served as deputy city manager of Lakewood from 1977 to 2010, brings a bureaucrat’s eye for detail to his poetic observations. His breakthrough “Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir”
received widespread critical acclaim and earned Joan Didion’s praise as “Infinitely moving and powerful, just dead-on right, and absolutely original.”
The new book explores topics as diverse and resonant as a 1935 endurance contest where 19-year-old Gloria Graves was buried alive in Los Angeles, and Vin Scully’s voice carried across summer air during his 67 years as voice of the Dodgers until his 2022 death at age 94.
“No one realizes Los Angeles better than D.J. Waldie, the prose-poet laureate of the land and the air and the light,” author Lawrence Weschler wrote.
D.J. Waldie discusses & signs “Elements of Los Angeles: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire” will run on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., in Pasadena. For more call (626) 449-5320 or visit https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-09-17/dj-waldie. Tickets: Free.
