An illustrated history of California writers, with extensive sections on Harte, Clemens, Miller, Bierce and the local periodicals and publishers. A considerable amount of the text is dedicated to women writers of California and the Women's Press Association

"The binding thread throughout this edited collection of Ambrose Bierce's letters is the argument that Bierce has too often vilified as a cynical misanthrope. Joshi and Schultz believe that Bierce's human side has been ignored by scholars, and they work here to rectify this oversight. The importance of this collection is underscored by the fact that no collection of Bierce's letters has been published since 1922. This selection represents a sampling of nearly one-half million words of Bierce's correspondence, which Joshi and Schultz are the first to gather and transcribe." "The letters reveal many sides of Bierce that he deliberately concealed in his literary work: the caring father who keenly felt the deaths of his two sons and took constant interest in the welfare of his only daughter; the literary giant of San Francisco who gathered around him a substantial cadre of disciples whose work he encouraged and meticulously criticized; the vigorous castigator of chicanery, hypocrisy, and injustice wherever he saw it; and the author of coyly flirtatious letters to a number of female correspondents. For the first time, a well-rounded picture of Bierce the man and writer emerges in his own words. The volume ends chillingly with Bierce's last surviving letter, written from Chihuahua, Mexico, on December 26, 1913, which concludes: "As for me, I leave here tomorrow for an unknown destination." Bierce was never heard from again." "The letters have been scrupulously edited from manuscript sources and exhaustively annotated to elucidate obscure historical, literary, and other references."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Carmel-by-the-Sea, The Early Years (1903-1913) describes the establishment of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, along with an overview of the history of the Carmel Mission and the Monterey Peninsula. The book's emphasis is on the development of Carmel as a Bohemian artists' and writers' colony at the start of the 20th century. The town's first decade of existence is described: the businesses and services offered, and the residential architecture. There are biographies of the well-known Bohemian artists, writers, poets, builders, and other notable residents and visitors in the early 1900's. This original group of settlers, the majority of whom came from Northern California's Bay Area, were distinctive individuals, who were drawn to the coastal village by its scenic beauty and the inspiration it provided for their intellectual pursuits. They set the tone that made Carmel-by-the-Sea a Bohemian enclave on the West Coast, and distinguished it as a unique place. These early residents and visitors left a significant and lasting impact on the future of the seaside town, which in turn attracted other creative talents to the area, through the years and still to this day. Carmel-by-the-Sea, The Early Years (1903-1913), preserves the literary, artistic, cultural, and architectural heritage of Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula region.

The American West is a complex region that has inspired generations of writers and artists. Often portrayed as a quintessential landscape that symbolizes promise and progress for a developing nation, the American West is also a diverse space that has experienced conflicting and competing hopes and expectations. While it is frequently imagined as a place enabling dreams of new beginnings for settler communities, it is likewise home to long-standing indigenous populations as well as many other ethnic and racial groups who have often produced different visions of the land. This History encompasses the intricacy of Western American literature by exploring myriad genres and cultural movements, from ecocriticism, settler colonial studies and transnational theory, to race, ethnic, gender and sexuality studies. Written by a host of leading historians and literary critics, this book offers readers insight into the West as a site that sustains canonical and emerging authors alike, and as a region that exceeds national boundaries in addressing long-standing global concerns and developments.