Hotel del Coronado - Bid Time Return - Coronado, CA
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member Metro2
N 32° 40.830 W 117° 10.663
11S E 483338 N 3615882
This novel's primary character stays at the Hotel del Coronado and returns here after doing some time traveling.
Waymark Code: WME4AA
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 04/01/2012
Published By:Groundspeak Regular Member Team Farkle 7
Views: 14

The Hotel del Coronado is the background for the 1975 science fiction novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson.
Wikipedia (visit link) informs us about the plot:

"Richard Collier is a 36-year-old screenwriter who has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and has decided, after a coin flip, to spend his last days hanging around the Hotel del Coronado. Most of the novel represents a private journal he is continually updating throughout the story.

He becomes obsessed with the photograph of a famous stage actress, Elise McKenna, who performed at the hotel in the 1890s. Through research, he learns that she never married, that she had an overprotective manager named William Fawcett Robinson, and that she seemed to have had a brief affair with a mysterious man while staying at this hotel in 1896. The more Richard learns, the more he becomes convinced that it is his destiny to travel back in time and become that mysterious man.

Through research (see below), he develops a method of time travel that involves using his mind to transport himself into the past. After much struggle, he succeeds. At first, he experiences feelings of disorientation and constantly worries that he'll be drawn back to the present, but soon the feelings dissipate.

He is unsure what to say to Elise when he finally does meet her, but to his surprise she immediately asks, "Is it you?" (She later explains that two psychics told her she would meet a mysterious man at that exact time and place.) Without telling her where (or, rather, when) he comes from, he pursues a relationship with her, while struggling to adapt himself to the conventions of the time. Inexplicably, his daily headaches are gone, and he believes that his memory of having come from the future will ultimately disappear.

But Robinson, who assumes that Richard is simply after Elise's wealth, hires two men to abduct Richard and leave him in a shed while Elise departs on a train. Richard manages to escape and make his way back to the hotel, where he finds that Elise never left. They go to a hotel room and passionately make love.

In the middle of the night, Richard leaves the room and bumps into Robinson. After a brief physical struggle, Richard quickly runs back into the room, and he casually picks a coin out of his pocket. Realizing too late that it is a 1970s coin, the sight of it pushes him back to the present.

At the end of the book, we find out that Richard died soon after. A doctor claims that the time-traveling experience occurred only in Richard's mind, the desperate fantasy of a dying man, but Richard's brother, who has chosen to publish the journal, is not completely convinced."
Short Description: Most of the action in real time occurs at this hotel..in between time travels.

Book Title: Bid Time Return

First Year Published: 1975

Author's Name: Richard Matheson.

Name of Waymarked Item: Hotel del Coronado

Location of Item: 1500 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92118

More Information:
see long description


Admission Price?: 0.00 (listed in local currency)

Link to more information about the book or waymarked item.: [Web Link]

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