The Splendid Idle Forties; Stories of Old California [Harrison Fisher, Illus.] [A revised and enlargement of a separate book by Atherton, Before the Gringos Came, 1894)

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902. First Edition. Very Good. [8x5.5in]; vii, [2], 3-389 pp., frontispiece and seven illustrations on 8 halftone plates, 13 stories of California life among the Californians; Original red cloth covers with stamped gilt lettering on front and spine with stamped poppy floral designs, color illustration of Spanish style building on front, only top edge trimmed; Minor shelf wear to covers, edges and corners with rubbing to bottom edge, joints and top and bottom of spine, slightly darken spine, several pages have offset shadows from previous laid in paper, a few light pencil marks in margins, prior owner stamp and ink signature on front end paper. [Zamorano80 #1, Howell50 969, Norris 130, Cowin64 p. 23, Powell California Classics p 103]. Gertrude Atherton (1857-1948) was an San Francisco author who wrote novels, short stories, essays and articles primarily set in California. She was a prolific writer. This book, and others, are about the early Spanish and Mexican days of California before the American emigrants came in the 1840's. From the Zamorano 80, "Perhaps the best known collection of stories of that romantic period of California history when the Americans were first intermingling with the Californians of rancho and presidio." Lawrence Clark Powell, in California Classics, wrote "Atherton's stories of love and death, bull and bear fights, moonlight meriendas, horse races and fancy dress balls, are increasingly meaningful and precious. They are truly classics of Californiana.". Among the sources of stories in the book, was Dana's, Two Years before the Mast, and, Powell as writes "They poignantly embody the drama of that crucial decade, when the Yankees conquered California ...