[Nevada City, California]: 1881. Leather bound. Folio size, 626 pp., with accompanying "History of Nevada County" While the California Gold Rush may have begun in 1849, mining activities continued for many decades and this bank ledger offers a glimpse into the individuals and businesses that were still in operation in..... More
New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1917. First Edition. Hardcover. Twelvemo size, 235 pp. Written after the author had passed 88 years of age, this important early work follows his decision as a young man to leave his home in the East to seek gold in California in 1850. The..... More
San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1934. Parker, Arvilla. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 550 copies, unnumbered, Second Series of Rare Americana, No. 4, quarto size, 60 pp. This collection of miscellany was carefully selected to give an honest and authentic viewpoint of the early mining days in California from the..... More
San Francisco: The Book Club of California (printed by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem), 1969. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 500 copies, oblong elephant folio size, [178] pp. The Book Club of California publication number 133, being a sequel to Robert Becker's earlier club publication of 1964 (no. 118). This..... More
San Francisco: The Book Club of California [designed by The Yolla Bolly Press], 2001. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 450 copies, unnumbered, folio size, 159 pp. After moving from Cannes, France, to Northern California, historian and researcher Claudine Chalmers was captured by the history and landscape of the Golden State;..... More
Los Angeles: Glen Dawson, 1951-1954. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Most volumes stated edition size of 200, volumes 1 through 20 (continuous), duodecimo size, approx. 1600 pp. total, with two pieces of related ephemera. Per the check-list, "The Early California Travels Series is a set of small volumes relating to the history..... More
San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1933. Parker, Arvilla. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 500 copies, quarto size, 107 pp. Nicholas Dawson (1819-1903), the partly self-educated schoolteacher infected with wanderlust, spent much of his life travelling on foot across America. His wanderings brought him through Missouri, Louisiana, and Arkansas to Mexico..... More
San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1934. Nahl, Charles. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Quarto size, 80 pp. Alonzo Delano (1806 - 1874), who went by the pen name "Old Block", was an American humorist, pioneer town city father, and a California Gold Rush Forty-niner; his sketches of gold rush camp life rivaled..... More
San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1932. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 500 copies, quarto size, 53 pp., Number 4 in the Rare Americana Series. Philip Leget Edwards (1812-1869) was an educator, lawyer, and legislator, and was part of the Willamette Cattle Company. During his time there he wrote this diary documenting..... More
San Francisco: The Press of Lewis and Dorothy Allen, 1942. Walker, Lawrence E. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 225 copies, duodecimo size, 61 pp. The exploration of California led many people to write effusively of the merits of Golden State, and Victor Fourgeaud (1815-1875) does so here in this reprint..... More
Redwood Park, California: The Hill Studio, n.d. Wraps. Undated, likely 1899-1902, oblong folio, pp. A stunning album of the "old" California Redwoods, with twelve mounted hand-coloured photogravure plates. Per the web site of Arts and Culture, submitted by History San José, the album "California Redwood Park" (which is now Big..... More
San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1929. McKay, Donald. Limited Edition. Hardcover. Two volumes (complete) in publisher's slipcase, octavo size, 122 pp. Two volumes with slipcase, each volume one of 300 copies printed. Alta California continued to be governed under this Reglamento, which embodied for the first time laws governing upper..... More
San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1967. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 450 copies, folio size, [108] pp. The Christmas Publication for 1967, reproducing in colour twenty full-page lithographs from the celebrated San Francisco weekly, "The Wasp", which during the final decades of the nineteenth century alternately entertained and..... More
[Mill Valley, California]: [Quail Press], [1977]. Killion, Tom. First and Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 240 numbered copies, with prospectus. The artwork of American artist and author Tom Killion (b. 1953) displays exquisite detail of line and shape; Killion learned printmaking and bookbinding from Jack Stauffacher of the Greenwood Press..... More
San Francisco: (Printed at the Yolla Bolly Press for) The Book Club of California, 1991. Limited First Edition. Hardcover. One of 400 copies, quarto size, [112] pp., with original purchase invoice from the Book Club laid in. A biography and bibliographical checklist of George Wharton James (1858-1923). James was the..... More
San Francisco: The Book Club of California, printed by Robert Grabhorn and Andrew Hoyem, 1972. Limited First Edition. Hardcover. One of 450 copies, folio size, [155] pp., with original sales invoice. The Book Club of California's 141st publication, and its Christmas book for 1972. The curious misconception that California was..... More
San Francisco: Industrial Indemnity Company, 1955. Adams, Ansel. First Edition. Wraps. Octavo size, 26 pp. The fascinating history of the land and building at 155 Sansome, commissioned by the Industrial Indemnity Company. Written by noted San Francisco historian Oscar Lewis (1893-1992, not to be confused with the New York anthropologist..... More
Fairfax, California: The Roxburghe Club of San Francisco (printed by Mallette Dean), 1958. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 125 copies, octavo size, 40 pp. Henry Miller Madden (1912-1982?) served as the University librarian at CSU-Fresno for thirty years, and was, in addition, an author, scholar, and translator in his own..... More
San Francisco: A. M. Robertson (Philopolis Press), 1909. Limited Edition. Hardcover. No. 2 of 500, duodecimo size, 47 pp. Written by American meteorologist Alexander McAdie (1863-1943), who made many advances in the field of meteorology and was also in charge of the U.S. Weather Bureau in San Francisco from 1903..... More
New York: The Century Co., 1894. First Edition. Hardcover. First issue, octavo size, 51 illustrations and 2 maps, 397 pp. John Muir (1838-1914) remains well-known and beloved today for his work on environmental issues over 100 years ago, and wrote extensively on the west, including Yosemite and the Sierras. He..... More
Utica, N.Y. T.J. Griffiths, 1870. First Edition. Hardcover. Duodecimo size, 456 pp. Full title page: "Beyond the West; Containing An Account of Two Years' Travel in That Other Half of Our Great Continent Far Beyond The Old West, On the Plains, In the Rocky Mountains, and Picturesque Parks of Colorado..... More
San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 2006. Limited First Edition. Hardcover. One of 250 copies, quarto size, 75 pp. John Ignatius Bleasdale (1822-1884) was a Catholic clergyman, who took his knowledge of wine making from Victoria to California during the early days of the California wine industry. The Book..... More
Miami, FL: Real Estate Data, Inc., 1980. Softcover. Oblong atlas folio size, 581 pp., 17th Edition. While the western portion of Contra Costa County, California was fully developed by 1960, primarily due to industrial development during World War II, the central and eastern portions are now far different from how..... More
Moving Parts Press for The Book Club of California, 2011. Rice, Felicia. Limited Edition. No binding. Number 12 of 75 copies, illustrated broadside, signed and numbered by artist Felicia Rice. The Book Club of California, one of the oldest book clubs in the U.S. for collectors and lovers of the..... More
Los Angeles: Glen Dawson [printed by William M. Cheney], 1955. Limited Edition. Hardcover. One of 200 copies, duodecimo size, 35 pp. Harry "Ward" Ritchie (1905-1996) founded The Ward Ritchie Press, a fixture in the Southern California literary landscape, in 1932. He was responsible for publishing thousands of books, including over..... More