'Sideways' Author Donates Memorabilia to UCSD

Sideways author and UC San Diego alumnus Rex Pickett has donated personal papers to the university library's special collections, which already included posters, photos and memorabilia from the book and movie it inspired, UC San Diego announced Monday.

Pickett, a 1976 UCSD graduate who studied film at the university, said he was honored and humbled to have his personal papers included among the library's special collections.

"The library is a critical intellectual resource for students and faculty and, without it, my university education would not have been the same," Pickett said. "I spent many days and nights on the seventh floor of the library poring over books I could never have found anywhere else in those pre-digital days, and I hold, and cherish, fond memories of the hours I spent there."

The author's experiences as a novelist and television writer, and in the film industry, are chronicled in the Rex Pickett Papers. University officials said a small exhibition of materials from the Pickett archive would be displayed at the Geisel Library through Aug. 30.

Pickett's Sideways novel also inspired a play, which will debut Tuesday at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre in the La Jolla Playhouse.

—City News Service