A history hunting retreat in California favored by Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon was leveled by a fire Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Manka’s Inverness Lodge, located in Marin County, was known for its gourmet cuisine. Artists and celebrities, including Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Chabon and Waldman, frequented the famed inn. Waldman said she and Chabon often went to Manka’s for pleasure and to work.

“We’ve gone there for countless romantic weekends,” Waldman said.

“It was our favorite hotel, absolutely. It was like the most gorgeous hunting lodge you’ve ever been to. Everything was rustic, but exquisite,” she said. “It just breaks my heart.”

The New York Times published a letter to the editor from Michael Chabon on Monday, defending the use of the acknowledgment in novels.

The letter came in response to an article Times books reporter Julie Bosman wrote that was critical of Norman Mailer’s very long acknowledgments.

“Here’s a crazy reason your article did not mention for including an acknowledgment at the end of your novel: to acknowledge,” Chabon wrote in the letter, dated Dec. 5 and mailed from Peterborough, New Hampshire.

“If there is some kind of old-fashioned virtue in concealing one’s debt to and gratitude for the hard work of others, it’s difficult for me to see where it lies,” Chabon wrote. “The comparison to an Oscar speech is easy but bogus; it’s much more like an invocation, a quick prayer of thanks offered up to your ancestors before you paddle your canoe over the falls.”

The final issue of The Escapists hit stands Wednesday.

“Thanks to everyone who loved this miniseries as much as we did,” writer Brian K. Vaughan said on his forum.

Steve Rolston and Jason Shawn Alexander illustrate the final tale of Max and Case. “When tragedy strikes, will the character that brought them together ultimately tear them apart?” the issue’s solication says. “Find out in this fantastic final issue of the Escapist’s first miniseries!”

Actor Adrien Brody met with producers about staring in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, but ultimately was not cast, according to an interview in today’s The Scotsman.

“I have read it and they’re going to make that movie. Without me,” Brody said. “There are similarities with The Pianist, though. I am very right for it, I know, but an artist fleeing from persecution by the Nazis? I see a lot of parallels. But it is a great role.”

To read the full interview, go here.

The Escapists #5 hit stores Wednesday, leaving only one more issue to go.

“I can’t tell you how much I love this mini,” writer Brian K. Vaughan says at his Web site.

Is Luna Moth an agent of the Iron Chain? Is she under the Saboteur’s control? Will Denny get out of jail? Will Max and Case make it, in more sense than one? You’ll have to buy the issue to find out.