Author: Joseph Andrew Cerny, The Bootlegger’s Daughter: A San Francisco Tale

Author Joseph Andrew Cerny discusses his new book, The Bootlegger’s Daughter: A San Francisco Tale.

A historical slideshow presentation by author Joseph Andrew Cerny, highlighting his new book The Bootlegger’s Daughter: A San Francisco Tale. The book tells the story of his grandmother, Ann White, who grew up on Nevada Street in Bernal Heights. During Prohibition in the early 1920s, Ann’s father operated a whiskey still in their basement and later expanded the bootlegging operation to the house next door, where he also kept a mistress. As a young girl, Ann—along with one of her sisters—was enlisted to help transport concealed whiskey to neighborhood speakeasies using a child’s wagon stacked with dolls. Her father also ran an illegal backroom bar behind his tobacco shop on Cortland Avenue—just steps away from our modern‑day library.

Space limited. Reservations required: (415) 355-2810, email bhemgr@sfpl.org or sign-up at the reference desk. 

Joseph Andrew Cerny was born in San Francisco in 1965 and grew up in the Bay Area. He graduated from UCSD in 1988. One of his degrees was in American History. He went on to attend medical school at Old Dominion University and had a 29-year career as a Family Physician. He retired in 2021 and for the past three plus years has volunteered as a docent for Placer County museums. He currently dresses in period attire and gives tours of the old gold rush town of Auburn, CA where he currently resides. He also gives tours of an old hotel/winery called the Bernhard House.