***Please post your suggestions for Book Titles for the Docent Lending Library in the Comments section at the end of this post. Better still, donate some of your favorite California Mission related books that you would like to pass on to others! Thanks!
Monitoring for Purchase or Donation
• (abridged version - 4th grader edition) Adopted by Indians: A True Story by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield. Suggested by ???. Amazon price $6.14. 144 pages. Apparently there is an "abridged" and an "unabridged" version of this book. The unabridged version is: Indian Summer:
A True Account of Traditional Life Among the Choinumne Indians of California's San Joaquin Valley by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield. Amazon price $32.00. 128 pages.
• Life of Padre Junipero Serra by Francis Palou, O.F.M. - price on Amazon - $12 new - Father Palou was a student of Fr. Serra in Mallorca and came with him to California. The fact that he was an admirer of Father Serra becomes apparent as you read his work. Available in SLO county libraries. Recommended by PF.
• Gregory Orfalea's recent "Journey to the Sun"- recommended by TW - ORDERED 3/4/2020 for $7.
• Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the Missions by James A. Sandos - recommended by Dr. DK! Connie has a copy that she will give me for the library when she is done reading it! 3/4/2020
• The Santa Fe Trail to California: The Journal & Drawings of H.M.T. Powell, 1849-1852 - 350 copies printed in 1981, and 300 copies printed in 1931 – 1931
• Rim of Christendom A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino Pacific Coast Pioneer- Herbert Eugene Bolton (my copy paid $24) - 1936 - suggested by TW - price paid $13 - ORDERED 1/19/2020.
• Baja California Land of Missions - David Kier (my copy paid $24) - suggested by TW - full price $26
• Island of the Blue Dolphins The Complete Reader's Edition - Scott O'Dell (my copy paid $22) - 2016 - suggested by TW - current price $15
• Yuma Crossing - Douglas D. Martin (my copy paid $6) - full price $14
• Massacre at the Yuma Crossing - Spanish Relations with the Quechans 1779 - 1782 - Mark Santiago - 2010 - suggested by TW - full price $20 hardcover
• Adobe Conservation - A Preservation Handbook- Cornerstones Community Partnerships (my copy paid $22) - 2006 - suggested by TW - current price $54
• Junipero Serra California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary - Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz (my copy paid $14) - 2015 - suggested by TW - current price $21
• Vitruvius The Ten Books of Architecture (my copy paid $6 - 5.5” x 8”) - suggested by
TW - full price $6 - ORDERED 1/19/2020
--- 8” x 11” version - full price $25
• A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States - Henderson, Timothy J. (my copy paid $6) - suggested by TW - current price $8 - ORDERED 1/19/2020
• From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California - Craig Russell - suggested by CD - current price $17
• The Power of Song: Music and Dance in the Mission Communities of Northern New Spain, 1590-1810 - Kristin Mann - suggested by TW - current price $51
• Kino - A Legacy, by Charles W. Polzer (my copy paid $8) - 1998 - suggested by TW - current price $11
• Finding the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, by A. C. Nidever A Novel Based on a True Story (my copy paid $15) - 2017 - suggested by TW - current price $15
• San Diego Mission, by Zephyrin Engelhard (my copy paid $15) - 1920 - suggested by TW - current price $17
********************
Book: Santa Fe Trail by H. M. Powell. Copies right now start at $250. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000OJZ5PM/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_collectible_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=collectible&qid=1582389047&sr=1-3
Book Recommendations from: Richard “Pete” Fisher 473-0405 Katfsh4@aol.com
On Apr 20, 2019, at
11:45 AM, Kathleen Fisher wrote:
Tim, The following is a
list of books on California. Those
marked in red (“ditto”) are not necessarily about the missions.
Pete
California
Annotated Bibliography
My favorite books on California History listed
in order of preference.
San Luis
Obispo Library website is: http://www.blackgold.org/polaris/default.aspx The
“card catalog” is available on-line. There is no longer a fee for
ordering books from remote libraries within the system. Most of
the following books have expired copyrights and are free or inexpensive on
Amazon or can be ordered for an e-reader. https://www.amazon.com/
*****Death
Valley in '49: Important Chapter of California Pioneer History. by William
Lewis Manly - William Manly wrote this personal account 45 years after it
happened. He must have told the story many times in that 45 years and it
got better in every telling. This is one of the best stories I have ever
read. Free on Kindle (This book tells a bit of the
California story without much mission history.)
*****Two Years Before the Mast by
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. - A descendent of one of Massachusetts Bay Colony’s
first families Richard Henry Dana left Harvard in 1836 and sailed to California
recounts his voyage and observations of California in a first person account.
$2.00 on Kindle (This book tells a bit of the
California story without much mission history.)
*****Life
of Padre Junipero Serra by Francis Palou, O.F.M. - Father Palou was a
student of Fr. Serra in Mallorca and came with him to California. The fact
that he was an admirer of Father Serra becomes apparent as you read his work.
Available in SLO county libraries.
*****Roughing
It by Mark Twain. In my opinion this is the most humorous of the
Great American Humorist’s works. It is not about missions, but about how
the author came to the Gold Country during the Civil War years and how he began
his career as a writer. (This book tells a bit of
the California story without much mission history.)
****Mission
San Luis Obispo in the Valley of the Bears by Zephhyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M.
- This book was given to me in docent training. It is the story unique to
our mission.
****The
Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. (That’s the title and the
author.)
Volume XVIII History of California 1842-1800
Volume XIX History of California 1801-1824
Volume XX History of California
1825-1840
Volume XXI History of California Whenever?
Volume XXII History of California 1846-1848
Mr.
Bancroft spent a lifetime collecting material on the history of the west
including a lot of interviews of first settlers made in the 1890’s by him and
six assistants. The above volumes are a selection that chronicles the
history of California in ten year increments. They are a part of a 39
volume history of the west. His original material that went into the
works is now held by the University of California Berkeley’s Bancroft
Library. Available in SLO county library
****Rezanof
by Gertrude Franklin Atherton. The tragic romance of a Russian
count
and the daughter of a Spanish governor. Free on Amazon.
****Santa
Anna of Mexico by Will Fowler. - Santa Anna lived during the
formative eight decades in the history of Mexico when California was part of
Mexico. He was called upon to lead the Mexican nation six times and is
vilified in most books of history. Will Fowler is a bit more
sympathetic. Available in SLO county libraries $14. 56 for hardback at
Amazon (This book tells a bit of the California
story without much mission history.)
****Biography
of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (There are biographies by different authors.
I don’t recall which I read.) - Don Vallejo once owned most of Sonoma
County and lands in two other counties, but was dispossessed by the American
Land Commission. He was a great Californio.
****Reminiscences of a Ranger or Early Times in Southern California. Vol. 2 by Major Horace Bell. - Major
Bell came to California the year before it became a state and stayed on to
become a state judge. He is very sympathetic to the Californios or
Mexicans who were Californians first, Mexicans second. (This
book tells a bit of the California story without much mission history.)
****The Anza Trail and the Settling of California by Vladimir Guerrero – If you have ever
driven across the Mojave Desert and wondered how Juan Bautista de Anza brought
242 settlers safely from New Mexico and Sonora across that same desert in the
1770’s this book answers the question. Available in SLO county libraries
$4.50 on Amazon
****Santa
Barbara’s Royal Rancho by Walker A Tomkins is the story of the Dos Pueblos
Mexican land grant near Santa Barbara from pre Spanish times until more recent
times. The adventures of Don Nicolas Den, owner of the rancho, during the
Mexican American War and subsequent gold rush is excellent reading
material. Available in SLO county libraries ditto
****The
Devil on Horseback: A biography of the Notorious Jack Powers by Dudley Ross
tells a different story about Dos Pueblos Rancho. Available in SLO county
libraries ditto
****Indian
Life at the Old Missions by Edith Buckland Webb – Ms. Webb searched the
diaries and documents of the Spanish and Mexican pioneers of California to
reconstruct the lives of the earlier inhabitants. Often quoting from such
sources she gives a detailed picture of the day-to-day life of the indigenous
people of California. This is a very reliable source for mission life.
****California
by Kevin Starr is a short but comprehensive history of our state from its
European discovery until the present. $17.95 on Amazon Available in
SLO county libraries
****Don Benito Wilson: An average southern Californian by
John Walton Caughey. - This is the story of one of the Americans who took
advantage of the Mexicans who were land rich and money poor. Benjamin
Wilson went on to be a major land owner and grandfather to General George
Patton. Available in SLO county libraries ditto
*****Memoirs
of General William T. Sherman Volumes I & II. General Sherman
spent his early career in California and was present when John Marshall’s gold
was presented in our capital. Captains Sherman and Ord were roommates in
the Monterey Customs House which now houses a museum. Free on Amazon ditto
*****History
of the Donner Party, A Tragedy of the Sierras by Charles Fayette
McGlashan. This is a short account of the Donner Party Tragedy that is
central to the California pioneer experience. Bernard DeVoto and Joan Didion
elaborate on the subject. Available in SLO county libraries ditto
****Discovery
of the Yosemite & of the Indian War of 1851 by Lafayette Houghton
Bunnell. Free on Amazon ditto
****The
Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A. in the Rocky Mountains and the Far
West by Washington Irving. The author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
tells the story of early American trappers coming to California in chapters 39
and 40 of this story. Free on Amazon ditto
****The
March of Portolá and the Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco by Zoeth
Skinner Eldredge and Eusebius Molera. Well written. Free on Amazon
****The
Life and Adventures of James P. Beckworth by T.D. Bonner Beckworth passed
through our county and was the first to discover the mass murder of the Reed
family of San Miguel. Free on Amazon
****In
and Out of the Old Missions of California by George Wharton James – This is
the best source I have read on the acculturation of the California natives to
the Spanish way of life. In Mr. James’s opinion the Spanish missionaries
did the most for the Indians, the Mexicans a little less, and the Americans
were the worst. Free on Amazon
****The
Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson. The great Scottish
author passed through California wine country in its infancy on his way to
Tahiti and made some observations. Free on Amazon. ditto
****Frontier
Service During the Rebellion or, A History of Company K First Infantry by
George H. Pettis. A personal account of an officer who was recruited in
the California Battalion that fought for the Union in the Civil War. Free on
Amazon ditto
***James
Ohio Pattie by Robert Glass Cleland. This is the biography of a
trapper who wandered into California in the 1820’s written by an untalented
biographer. Free on Amazon
***The
Mountains of California by John Muir. I like the mountain, too, but I
would be hard pressed to describe them in so many pages. ditto
***A
New Voyage Round the World in the Year 1823, 1824… Volume II by Otto von
Kotzbué - As a functionary of the Russian bureaucracy Otto visited Fort
Ross and Mission San Francisco. His works contain some criticism of the
missions under early Mexican rule. Free on Amazon
***History
of San Luis Obispo County with Illustrations is a 1966 reproduction of a
book first published in 1883. -This book has a lot of information and some
misinformation about our county. There are biographical sketches of
important people in our county’s history that are interesting reading.
Available in SLO county libraries
***According
to Madge: Early Times in South San Luis Obispo County and the Arroyo Grande
Valley by Madge C. Ditmas is a collection of historical vignettes of
incidents and personalities in the cattle culture of turn of the century south
county. The best stories are in the first 20+ pages.
Available in SLO county libraries
***The
Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, Oregon, California by John C.
Fremont. -Guess who the hero of this book is. The version I read did not
include Fremont’s Mexican/American War experiences. Free on Amazon
***The
Missions of Nueva California - by Charles Franklin Carter - Most of these
stories are a bit simplistic but the story of Father Peyri of mission San Luis
Rey as told to the author by an Indian is the best testimonial of the
missionaries’ work that I have ever read. Available in SLO county libraries
***Remembering
the Hacienda: History and Memory of the Mexican American Southwest by
Vincent Perez is a view of the grand haciendas as a social and economic force
that replaced the missions in Mexican colonies that became part of the United
States. Free on Amazon
***Star
King in California by William Day Simmons tells the story of the man whose
statue was once in the Capitol building of Washington D.C. His statue was
replaced by that of Ronald Reagan. The other statue in the capitol is of
Junipero Serra. Free on Amazon
Fiction
****The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by
Bret Harte – Bret Harte captures the spirit of the gold rush era in his
many tales. In his tale “A Convert of the Mission” Harte captures the
clash of cultures between the Protestant American and the native Californio.
****Tales
from the Mountain of Gold: A Chinese Slave Girl in Gold Rush San Francisco by
Lee Payne is an updated version of the Story of Job.
***Ramona
by Helen Hunt Jackson- Ms. Jackson wrote a scathing criticism of American
Indian policy in her Century of Dishonor and then spent a short time in
California preparing for this very romantic novel of the post mission Indian
life. Her observations were so near the reality that there are still
places in California pointed out as the “home of Ramona.” The annual play
in Hemet is must-see.
***The Penance of Magdalena &
Other Tales of the California Missions by Smeaton Chase. Whatever!
