Borthwick, J.D.:

$1,250 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. Considered one of the best accounts of life in the mines during the California gold rush, with excellent illustrations. J.D. Borthwick, a Scottish artist and journalist, left his native land in 1847 to see North America. Like many young men of his generation, Borthwick caught gold fever, and moved to San Francisco in 1851. He spent the next three years travelling throughout the California gold country, eagerly observing and sketching the people and places he encountered. This memoir about his time in gold country includes his experiences in mining camps near Sacramento, Coloma, Nevada City, San Andreas, Sonora, Jacksonville, Downieville, and Placerville. The book is generally regarded as one of the most entertaining first-person accounts of the early Gold Rush period. Wheat calls it "an outstanding account of mining life," while Streeter says, "I do not know of another story by an actual miner that is so well written and so true to that wonderful life in the Days of Gold." The handsome illustrations, drawn by the author, depict card games, dances, mining operations, and Chinese immigrants.

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