George Rathmell

REALMS OF GOLD
The Colorful Writers of San Francisco 1850-1950
George Rathmell

Infinity Publishing ISBN 0-7414-4537-9 $17.95

I believe that in order to truly know a city one has to walk the streets and to know who walked those streets before you. George Rathmell’s book provides the visitor this opportunity as he takes the reader through the rich and exciting history of San Francisco as well as introducing the literati who both lived it and helped to shape its history.

From cover to cover, Realms of Gold is an easy read as it is written in the vernacular. The book is obviously well researched and the attention to detail adds superb quality to the content. The book covers the period spanning 1850 to 1950 and follows both the timeline of San Francisco’s development as well as the stories of the authors who called the city home during this period and the roles they played in helping San Francisco become a literary Mecca. The authors included Francis Bret Harte, Ina Coolbrith, Samuel Clemens, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Isadora Duncan to John Steinbeck, William Saroyan and Henry Miller, just to name a few. Rathmell provides such interesting and enlightening facts that I began to feel as though I knew them. And in a sense, I did come to know them.

There were others who played dominant roles in the city’s development. Loeb (Levi) Straus came to San Francisco to sell tent canvas only to find the market saturated. By listening to the miners complaints about their clothes wearing out too quickly came his idea to construct a long lasting garment that eventually evolved into what we now know as “jeans”. William Randolph Hearst, a Harvard dropout, who craved power. It is in San Francisco that he began his quest with the newspaper, the Examiner, which he owned. “Young Hearst began a new kind of journalism that would build a chain of newspapers around the nation and fulfill his dream: to be the most powerful man in America.”

I don’t usually read history books. I have found them to be dry. This book is an exception as the author gives a lively depiction of a place and its people. The flow of the text keeps the reader engaged and interested. I found myself wanting more information and I plan to seek it out. Should I ever find myself walking the streets of San Francisco I won’t feel that I am a stranger or that I am alone and that is because I read this wonderful book.… (més)

A history book with a twist, we learn about the beginnings and growth of San Francisco as seen by its many famous writers and poets through a century. I thought this was a novel way to learn the fullness and diversity of this early city. From the '49ers scrambling for gold to the post-WWII era, George Rathmell has covered a lot of ground. I was surprised to find that the early writers were primarily poets, even those who went on to writing articles and books.

This book has been well-researched, the city and inhabitants raucous and lively. The author makes use of plausible conversation and real quotes, working with these to form his own brand of writing, entertaining yet informative. To get so much history of these great writers all in one book is quite an accomplishment. The problem is that it is neither here nor there, not just a history of the city and not just a history of the more famous writers who either lived for some time in the city or visited. Don't expect the book to feature one or the other exclusively.

This is also a work showing how different California was, especially prior to statehood, from the east and the south of the country. Different climate, cultures, entertainments, freedoms, and possibly more opportunity for women. I enjoyed meeting these characters of the early days. Some authors and entertainers who have stood the test of time were featured in this book: Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and Samuel Clemens, all were long-term visitors to historic San Francisco. Clemens did not go by his Mark Twain persona until later. Young Jack London, born in San Francisco, Bret Harte, and the famous dancer Isadora Duncan. All wonderful entertainers in their own right. To read the progressions in the lives of these people, combined with the progress of the city, brings the book alive.

As the century changes, so too does the city and its people. Several local and world events take place over the next 50 years changing San Francisco forever. The Great Earthquake of 1906 and the ensuing maelstrom of fire destroying the city, and many of the authors’ manuscripts, is vividly described from the eyes of these authors. The Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 with the International Congress of Authors, underscores a new breed of writer and the aging of the original group. World War I, and the Spanish Influenza, authors Dashiell Hammett and John Steinbeck. The death of Ina Coolbrith in 1928, the last of the original Bohemian group. The Depression of the ‘30s, bringing people from the Dust Bowl of the central States into San Francisco, and new authors such as William Saroyan. The Golden Gate Exposition 1939-1940 followed by the attack on Pearl Harbour which threw the United States into World War II. A mix of devastation and exhilaration.

The early days are laid to rest but the earliest writers and poets of San Francisco are immortalized in parks and monuments, the spokespersons of the Golden Era of San Francisco. What a challenge this story must have been. The author has managed to squeeze a century into this book, bringing the city to life through the writings of these "Bohemians" who saw and documented these earliest days. Considering the volume of information he must have accumulated, this book is well written.… (més)

(An extended version of this review is available here.)

Title: Realms of Gold: The Colorful Writers of San Francisco 1850-1950
Author: George Rathmell
Publisher: Infinity Publishing
270 pp $17.95
ISBN: 0-7414-4537-9

George Rathmell's Realms of Gold: The Colorful Writers of San Francisco 1850-1950 is a hybrid. Part history, part genealogy, and part literary overview, the book is nevertheless consistently entertaining, painting a fascinating yet intimate portrait of San Francisco's best creative wit.

Realms of Gold builds its narrative through the relationships between the writers of San Francisco and the social, political and cultural milieu in which they lived. The book discusses in great detail Sam Clemens's desire to go home rich, followed by his freefall into poverty when the bottom fell out of the silver market.

Rathmell describes the mental vacillations and resulting travels of Charley Stoddard in phases, bringing Stoddard in and out of a Stateside literary scene that involves great poets (Ina Coolbrith), not-so-great poets (Cincinnatus "Joaquin" Miller, Minnie Miller), writers struggling to survive (Clemens), writers surviving spectacularly (Ambrose Bierce), and writers suffering with personal and familial demons (Stoddard and Harte).

A brilliant book - not to be missed.… (més)