Herb Caen (1916-1997) was a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist working in San Francisco. He worked for the San Francisco Chronicle from the late 1930s until his death, with an interruption from 1950 to 1958 during which he wrote for the San Francisco Examiner.
Caen gained notoriety with his column "It's news to me", which was first published in 1938. His columns were known for their dry wit and his intricate knowledge of the goings-on in his city. Caen had a considerable influence on pop culture and its language; most notably, he is credited with inventing the term Beatnik in a 1958 column.
Caen received a special award from the Pulitzer Prize board in 1996 "for his extraordinary and continuing contribution as a voice and conscience of his city". He died of cancer on 1 February, 1997.
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