Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I stumbled across this book by accident one day and it has turned out to be my find of 2001 -- one of the most enjoyable books I have read in ages. Taylor, a youthful New York journalist and poet, was sent out to California to file back dispatches on this wild, gold-filled, lush place in the seminal gold rush year of 1849, when California was a sprawling region, and not yet a state. And what a fabulous job he does -- this reads more like an engaging adventure narrative than non-fiction, and I could not put it down -- a reader is completely transported into another place and time. One cannot fail to be fascinated by the bustling, energetic, multi-ethnic, can-do place that was the west coast. If you know California, especially the San Francisco, Monterey and Sacramento areas, Taylor's descriptions of their still-untamed landscapes will be both familiar and strange, but always utterly lovely. His reports of the gold rush regions are extraordinary, as is his walk -- yes, *walk* -- from San Francisco to Monterey... this at a time when a galloping horse could get from San Jose to San Francisco in perhaps seven *hours*. Taylor is funny, honest, generally very clear-eyed and unsentimental, and his writing is of very high calibre. Kudos to Heyday Press for bringing this wonderful book to a new audience. I am giving it to everybody as a gift this year.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Eldorado: Adventures in the Path of Empire
Baynard Taylor was sent by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune to San Francisco in September 1849 to report on the Gold Rush. He was already well known as a chronicler of his travels in Europe "with knapsack and staff." This book is a treasure, and it is the source of the phrase, "Go west, young man."--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Click here for more information about Eldorado: Adventures in the Path of Empire
0 comments:
Post a Comment