L.A.’s bard Al Martinez recognized at Huntington

It’s pouring rain the day Al Martinez’s exhibit opens at the Huntington Library. Still, the 82-year-old writer makes his way from his home in Topanga Canyon to the museum in San Marino to do what he does best — interact with strangers.

He lingers near the door, surrounded by photographs of himself in the exhibit’s lobby, greeting fans who carry copies of one of the several books he has published. Some tell him they used to work at the Los Angeles Times, where Martinez was a columnist for more than 35 years.

“If you’re a newspaper columnist, you get all kinds of people to choose from, and L.A. is rich with differences,” he says. “Some of them jumping up and down, ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ Others are more subtle but a little off the wall. You can expect anything. There is nothing that is predictable.”

One of those characters he covered, a professional clown, had a mark near his eye. Martinez asked what it was for, and he explained it was for his parents, who died in Auschwitz.

“It just changed the whole thing,” he says.

Martinez has made a living writing about interesting characters. He started in the Bay Area at the Richmond Independent in 1952, eventually moving on to the Oakland Tribune in 1955 and The Times in 1971, where he won three Pulitzer Prizes. He became known for his humorous and unconventional views on Los Angeles. When asked what he’s learned about people through his columns, he replied, “never enough.”

“You learn generally how much we’re all really striving for something,” he says. “For some, it’s really modest goals; for others, it’s going through stardom and disappointments. In L.A., which is known as the city of dreams, all these young people come here, some really talented. It’s just a mess trying to get through the maze of barriers.”

The exhibit, “Al Martinez: Bard of L.A.,” chronicles his career by the paper trail, from his columns and books to television scripts he wrote for “Hawaii Five-O” and “Jigsaw John.”

In his early work, Martinez’s voice is recognizable in the rhythm of his sentences.

In a Feb. 3, 1952 letter he wrote to his wife, Joanne Martinez, while serving in the Korean War, he describes the experience of hunkering down in a foxhole. “[In] it, you feel the strength of your own protection, and the power of your defense. At night you have to depend on it. At night you can live in it, or you can die in it.”

Joanne, whom Martinez often calls by her maiden name, Cinelli, says they only dated for a few months after meeting at San Francisco State College before they married. She thinks the exhibit is well-deserved.

“He’s a good writer,” she says. “I thought so when I was 19, and I never changed my mind.”

Martinez often weaves his personal life into his columns, drawing from experiences he has on the road or at home. Liz Williams, his niece, says when she got married in Greece, he followed her there and wrote a story about it when he returned home.

What helps him stand out from the scores of other columnists is his sense of humor and frankness, she says.

“He kind of says it how it is, and you either really disagree, or agree,” Williams says. “But even if you disagree with him, he’s OK with that and he’s funny about it, and I think people like him even if they disagree with him because he jokes around about it and he has a good sense of humor.”

Today, Martinez pens columns for the Los Angeles Daily News and his community’s local paper, the Topanga Messenger. He has a blog, but adamantly defends print journalism.

“You look at the online stuff now, and it’s enmeshed in errors and not factual stuff and it’s sloppily written,” he says. “In the traditions of print journalism, you don’t get by with that stuff. You double check, triple check and you write well. You present the information that you gather on. If we have to rely on online journalism or television journalism, we’re going to be in sorry shape because nothing is ever going to replace print journalism.”

At a workshop he leads, he teaches budding writers his craft. He says he is positioning a 17-year-old student, Dashiell Young-Saver, to have a career as a columnist.

“You watch for him,” he says. “He’s a wonderful writer.”

Martinez says he was nonplused when he saw the title of the exhibit calling him a “bard,” since he doesn’t consider himself a poet. The curators of the exhibit told him there were other uses of the word that applied to his work.

“It has all different kinds of meanings; commentary on the people, soul of the people. And that was my job.”

“Al Martinez: “Bard of L.A.” The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, West Hall, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. Exhibit runs through June 25. Museum hours are Monday, Wednesday through Friday from noon to 4:30 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. Admission for members is free; $15 to $20 for adults, $12 to $15 for seniors, $10 for students and $6 for children 5 to 11. Information at www.huntington.org.

Tour with curator Sue Hodson and Al Martinez April 19, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. $15 for members, $20 for non-members. Space is limited. Call (626) 405-2128 for more information.