Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City came into being in 1976 as a newspaper serial in the daily San Francisco Chronicle. Just as readers a century earlier eagerly awaited the next installment of a Dickens novel, a growing cadre of readers followed the developments among Maupin's diverse family of friends in the gay mecca of 1970s San Francisco. Tales of the City first appeared in book form in 1978. Five additional books followed in the series, taking readers from the joyously hedonistic pre-AIDS era to the first stirrings of fear in the face of the epidemic. The two first books were adapted for television in 1997 and 1998. They featured Olympia Dukakis as Mrs. Madrigal, the landlady with a mysterious allure and a ready stash of marijuana to share with her tenant charges. Maupin's first non-series novel, Maybe the Moon, was published in 1994.

Further Reading:

Carman, John. "'More Tales': A Celebration of the City." San Francisco Chronicle. June 5, 1998.

Maupin, Armistead, Tales of the City. New York, Harper, 1978.