Old San Francisco [signed] [first edition]

In this monumental work that took ten years to research and write, Doris Muscatine provides an all-encompassing social history of the city, beginning with the Indians who first settled in the area and ending with the famous earthquake of 1906. Along the way, people of all races, nationalities and faiths poured in and turned their new home into both crucible and melting pot. Whaling, the fur trade, ranching; the Gold Rush, the forty-niners and how they got to California; popular entertainment, the arts business and the professions; hotels, restaurants, private clubs; fire companies and vigilantes; silver and railroads; architecture and geography; religion and education. No subject has been too large or too small to be included. What emerges is indeed "The Biography of a City". And just as interesting as the topics covered are the personalities involved. Here are the originals whose names are now household worlds in San Francisco; Stanford and Sutro, Crocker and Magnin, Geary and Leavenworth. Some of the people, such as silver king John W. Mackay and his social-climbing family, received international attention. William C. Ralston, the banker who tried to turn San Francisco into a personal empire, remains well known to students of American history. Eliza Wychie Hitchcock, the unconventional sweetheart of Engine Company Number Five, or the infamous Mammy Pleasant, with her secret hold on the leading members of the community, could have occurred nowhere else. Fact or anecdote, the notorious and the celebrated, all are in this book to provide both entertainment and edification.