O California! [Hardcover]

P. Mills (Author), S. Vincent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1991

Approximately 100 color plates by many artists are juxtaposed with travel and historic narratives, capturing the landscapes and new cities from the Gold Rush through the turn of the century. Full color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Displaying California's "vast geographic diversity, and the variety of ways in which its writers and artists responded to the challenge of its landscape," this anthology--a travel book as much as a history--is organized by region in a text that includes poems, excerpts from novels, pioneer journals and letters of travelers. "We were new creatures, born again, and truly not until this time were we fairly conscious that we were born at all," noted John Muir of his exploration of the Santa Clara Valley in 1868. He and writers Jack London, John Steinbeck, Frank Norris, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robinson Jeffers show more range than the almost uniformly euphoric and pastoral 100 color landscapes included here by artists such as William Keith ( Donner Pass , 1890) and Gordon Coutts ( Desert Wash , 19l3). Vincent is director of Bedford Arts, Mills a former director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

California has always loomed large in the national imagination as a symbol of the unlimited possibilities of the American experience. The dream and the reality of the Golden State are explored in these three works. Full of geography, geology, and natural and cultural history, Desert Heart is the most scientific of the three. The Sonoran Desert takes in large portions of western Arizona, northwestern Mexico, and Baja as well as southern California. Based on 25 years of exploration, astronomer/painter Hartmann spins a history of events and colorful characters in this harsh region. The photos and maps enhance the detailed narrative rather than stealing the show. The 122 color photographs in California are a feast of the familiar--poppy fields, crashing surf, cable cars, lofty redwoods, Yosemite Valley, and twisted bristlecone pines. This coffee-table elegy is big, glossy, and self-assured. Jones's photos gorgeously reveal the Golden State's rich diversity. O California! is an exhibition catalog without an exhibition. Organized by geographic location, its 109 landscapes range from the earliest artists to the 1930s. The visual material is matched with literary passages from writers, artists, naturalists, settlers, and Native Americans. The book is both celebration and lamentation, celebrating the land and vision while lamenting its staggering changes over the last 150 years.
- Russell T. Clement, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, Ut.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (November 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938491202
• ISBN-13: 978-0938491200
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 10.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,089,036 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Glimpse Of What It Was Like..., November 8, 2006

By 

A. H. Agren - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: O California! (Hardcover)

"O California!" bestows a glimpse of what prehistory California was like before its wild nature so quickly vanished. The reader of this weighty coffee table-sized book, enjoys a journey back in time through excerpts of the diaries of Spanish padres, essays and memoir of American settlers and literature by early California authors. Each excerpt is accompanied by historical California landscape paintings.

"O California!" tours seven geographical regions of the state: San Francisco northward through Marin and Sonoma, Mt. Diablo eastward through the San Joaquin Valley, The High Sierras and Yosemite, The Southern Sierra and the Deserts to San Gorgonio Pass, The Peninsula south of San Franciso down to the Salinas Valley, Morro Bay to Los Angeles, and The Southern Coast of Orange and San Diego counties.

A lengthy preface by Kevin Starr, an essay by Paul Mills, and an editor's note by Stephen Vincent can be enjoyed as upfront reading to set the tone in enjoying the following historic descriptions and visuals, or they can be skimmed past in the reader's eagerness to get to the content, and read as an afterword - all three should be read though. The Bibliography and Index make for almost as interesting a read as the rest of the book - perhaps it all depends on how much of a California history geek is the reader.

This is a fine addition to the canon of California history books. "O California!" is set-apart from the others by its lack of interpretation of events, instead allowing the personal truth, the eyewitness accounts describe what California was like. The oversize-ness make this more of an art book than a textbook - A keeper to hand down through your own California generations, so that the young ones to follow us may also enjoy a glimpse of a once-free California.