Customer Reviews

Three Fearful Days: San Francisco Memoirs of the 1906 Earthquake & Fire

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I am a former Bay Area resident, who fell in love with the city's history while attending college in the Bay Area, and try to read everything I can about the great city. I have read several of Malcolm Barker's books, including Bummer and Lazarus. What Barker does is collect letters from people who actually lived in the city, in this case, Three Fearful Days, letters from people who survived the great earthquake and disaster. I actually read this, I believe, several years ago and just last spring started posting some reviews: this was an incredible collection of stories. They are all ordinary citizens thrust into the most terrifying situation any human could face: the complete and total annihilation of their beloved city. This should be mandatory reading for anyone who loves American history, the history of the West, and California/San Francisco history in particular. It is so much better than most of the recent histories of the disaster, because these are first hand accounts, without projections and hyperboles. I think anyone would be drawn in the minute they start reading it. A truly great book, as are all of Barker's books.

There is so much cool stuff in this book. Filled my head with so many things to incorporate into my novel set during the quake. It's a keeper.