Chronicler of San Francisco history as well as the history of liberal movements in the US, David Talbot, reportedly suffered a massive stroke last week — his second in seven years — which has caused some significant and likely lasting impacts, according to his family and friends.

The Season of the Witch author, Salon.com co-founder, and longtime local journalist is recovering in the hospital from the stroke, which happened on June 2.

Longtime friend Aaron Peskin publicized the news and a GoFundMe campaign that has been established to help Talbot and his wife — who were in the process of moving out of their home of 30 years when the stroke occurred. Peskin said the stroke had been "devastating."

Talbot's son, the filmmaker Joe Talbot, tells the Chronicle that the couple will now need help finding long-term housing that can accommodate what may be significant care needs for Talbot, who has been immobilized by the stroke.

"Last Sunday, David suffered a near-fatal stroke," writes friend Connie Matthiessen on the GoFundMe page. "It happened as he and his wife, Camille, were having to move out of their family home of over 30 years, and it's left both David and Camille in a scary and precarious place, not knowing where they’ll live on top of this agonizing event."

Matthiessen says, "It's unclear if, or how much, David will recover at this time. He currently struggles to form words, which, for a writer and speaker of David's stature, has been incredibly hard for him and painful for all of us to see."

Talbot previously suffered a severe ischemic stroke in November 2017, an experience he wrote about in the book Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of My Stroke, which was published in early 2020.

Talbot recently finished what he said would be his final history book, co-written with sister Margaret Talbot and brother-in-law Arthur Allen, titled By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution. The book focuses on seven flashpoints of the 1960s and 70s that the authors say created "the second American Revolution."

Talbot said it was "my final historical effort at understanding what my generation achieved, and what we failed to accomplish, in attempting to move the country fully toward its better angels."

Joe Talbot tells the Chronicle that his parents were being forced to move out of their Bernal Heights home for financial reasons, and that his father's stroke "happened at the worst possible time." And because of his father's physical condition after the stroke, the new home they were going to move to is "no longer possible."

Matthiessen adds that family and friends of Talbot "feel confidently that, against great odds, he understands much of what we're saying and that his beautiful spirit remains astonishingly intact."

The GoFundMe campaign has so far raised almost $13,000 of a $65,000 goal as of this writing.