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Author: Swasey, W[illiam] F.
Title: The Early Days and Men of California
Place Published: Oakland, CA
Publisher:Pacific Press
Date Published: 1891
Description:

x, 9-406 pp. Illustrated with 4 plates including a wood-engraved frontispiece of San Francisco in 1846-7 & halftone portrait of the author. (8vo) original full brown morocco tooled in blind and with decorative title and pictorial view of Fort Point and the Golden Gate in gilt on front cover, gilt-decorated and lettered spine, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. First Edition.

"Captain Swasey arrived in California in 1845 and was in the employ of both Captain Sutter at Sutter's Fort and American Consul Thomas O. Larkin at Monterey. He had first hand information on all the early happenings and knew personally nearly all of the important pioneers. He was a member of Fremont's Battalion on his march south into Los Angeles. Much of the book is taken up with biographical sketches of important pioneers. The book has always been considered an authority" - Zamorano. Cowan notes that Swasey "wrote easily, and his work forms a reliable picture of the men and events of the early days, more especially San Francisco." Kurutz notes the work as especially valuable for information about California before the gold discovery, and calls it "more of a history than a memoir." Cowan p.627; Graff 4047; Howes S1167; Kurutz 615; Streeter Sale 3012; Zamorano Eighty #72.

Some wear to binding with rubbing to leather at extremities and near edges, corners lightly bumped and worn; hinges starting, light toning to interior; very good.