Bruce Henstell Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties, Chronicle: San Francisco, 1984. 132 pp., 1890s
"Venice-by-the-Sea, Venice of America as it was called, was the creation of a true eccentric, Abbot Kinney. Kinney's family made a fortune in the Gilded Age with a daring new product: cigarettes. Kinney's wealth freed him to search for a cure for the bane of his existence: insomnia. His search eventually led him to the healthful environment of Los Angeles, which he credited with curing him of the scourge.
"Kinney became not only a resident but a booster. He authored a lengthy monograph on the eucalyptus tree which thrived in Southern California. With Helen Hunt Jackson, he wrote a study of the downtrodden Gabrielino Indians. And Kinney became a developer, purchasing a large tract of land immediately south of Santa Monica which he platted as the resort city of Ocean Park." pp.104, 105