Customer Reviews

A Year of Mud and Gold: San Francisco in Letters and Diaries, 1849-1850

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Would you like to have seen the Bay Area when it was still wilderness? When Elk and grizzlies roamed the hills of Marin County, and the native wildflowers grew so thick on the slopes of Angel Island that their perfume was almost nauseating? Perhaps you'd just like a chance to have been in San Francisco when you could still buy a lot in the Financial District for $200? In The Year of Mud and Gold, William Benemann gives you the chance to experience all that and more. Through the journals and letters of California's first American settlers, we are able to re-live California's glory days. Like Benemann's editorial commentary, most of the letters are extraodrdinarily well-written, and paint a vivid picture not only of the Paradise that was the Bay Area, but also of daily life in the frenzied early years of the Gold Rush when were trying to create a new society and civilization in a wild land where the only law was that of supply and demand.

There is nothing more enticing than reading someone's diary or letters--especially when you know that the writer is a real person. For this reason alone, Benemann's compilation is mouth-watering. If, on top of this voyeurism, you are intersted in Gold Rush history, then this is the book for you! Benemann does a noteworthy job of roping together accounts of Argonauts and their experiences under common themes so that the individual contributions don't seem disjointed. As a native San Franciscan who was reared constant tidbits of California history (even as a college student with access to the Bancroft Collection), I was neverthless surprised to learn so very many new things about my City.

My only complaint is that I would have liked to know more about the writers themselves. I believe that this is not the fault of Benemann, but rather that more of their personal history is not available.

Side note to fellow Californians: I first came upon this book at the Sacramento Public Library in their beautiful history room; I ordered it from Amazon as soon as I returned home. The library has a positively astounding collection of letters, mss., and maps that kept me enthralled for hours.

What a wonderful compilation! Benemann has done a great job of roping in important historical tidbits with the correspondence and journal entries he includes. It's well-controlled and well-edited, yet expansive (if that makes sense). My only disappointment was not being able to know more about the writers' lives (--no fault of the editor, since such information is unavailable).

What a wealth of information the Bancroft Library must include! (This from a San Francisco native and Berkeley grad--but I must say that one needn't be a "local" to appreciate this). The themes of the Gold Rush era--entrepreneurism, adventure, overcoming obstacles, wonderment--will resonate with everyone. If you are at all interested in California history, this is a must-read.

(Side note to fellow Californians: I first saw this book on a visit to the California history room of the Sacramento Public Library, and was so engaged that when I returned home I immediately ordered it from Amazon. The Sacto library has a wealth of original mss. as well as books like these. I encourage a visit to this treasure-trove)!

A completely different look on the Old West - the way it truly was through letters. Some things are repetitive in the letters; but it paints a great portrait of how California was during the gold rush years, I wish the year before and a few years after were added to get an even bigger vision of how San Francisco changed in just a matter of years. If you're a history buff you will like it...