Letters to Bill
Former Chronicle book editor Bill Hogan quietly saved years of correspondence with some of America’s greatest writers
By Eric Newton • Bay City News
September 24, 2026
In 1979, I first met William Hogan, longtime book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. I was fresh out of SF State, the 21-year-old managing editor of his hometown weekly, the Mill Valley Record.
I idolized him. Because he was a big deal at the biggest newspaper in Northern California. Because, when he was my age, he took a train to Monterey to drop in on John Steinbeck. Because he was a soft-spoken, genuinely humble man who liked to help young writers.
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