Victor Hugo Presco a Bohemian

Here is my father’s father. He was a professional gambler in San Francisco and Crockett. Vic took my brother and I to see him. He was living on a houseboat in the shadow of the Carquinez Bridge. He had a roommate who was a light-skinner black man. My father was disgusted and made a point to show his father he had sired two sons. I suspect Victor Hugo was a homosexual, and this is the reason he left Melba Broderick, daughter of William F. Broderick. Her father-in-law, Wensel Anton Prescowitz, was a tailor at Bullock&Jones.

I live on my small boat near Jack London Square. When I was twelve, I did a watercolor of  sailboat that was chosen to tour the world. You can see it on the wall in the photo above. I only saw Victor Hugo, once, but he was a major influence on me. You can’t buy…