“Sideways” author donates personal papers to UC San Diego library

“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, UCSD announced on 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.