Davis, William Heath:

$950 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

SEVENTY=FIVE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA.... A very handsomely bound copy of these valuable reminiscences of early California, printed in a limited edition on thick, watermarked paper. This is the second, expanded edition of a work originally published in 1889, then titled Sixty Years in California. Published by John Howell Books in San Francisco in a total edition of 2250 copies (though printed by The Lakeside Press in Chicago) in 1929, it is enhanced by numerous plates of facsimile letters and illustrations as well as another fifteen years of Davis' recollections. The old pioneer was actually born in Hawaii to a Boston merchant and spent his formative years at sea. He visited California as early as 1831, and permanently settled in Yerba Buena (later San Francisco) in 1838 after several years as a trader between Boston and the Pacific Coast. He knew just about everyone of importance in the area, and his stories are some of the most interesting, valuable, and trusted accounts of pre–Gold Rush California. This copy bears the bookplate of Frederick Woodward Skiff, an author, bibliophile, and renowned collector of Americana. Skiff wrote two books about his experiences as a collector of Americana, and is remembered for founding Hartford's Acorn Club, an organization dedicated to printing and preserving Connecticut history. After his death in 1947 his collection was sold at auction, much of which found its way from there into the legendary collection of Estelle Doheny."Most valuable Calif

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