Realms of Gold, The Colorful Writers of San Francisco, 1850-1950, has its own particular cachet, which author George Rathmell likens to San Francisco during this incredibly important literary period. This is a book for readers who love to immerse themselves in their chosen topic. If that happens to be the evolution of writers from 1850-1950 coming in and out of San Francisco, you’ve found gold, and it doesn’t disappoint as the Gold Rush around that time did for thousands we’re told about.

The decade produced an incredible group of writers, and the period is made all the more interesting, telling and meaningful as Rathmell presents it in context to the time. Darwin’s The Origins of the Species and Marx and Engels The Communist Manifesto had rattled the senses of self in Europe and was on its way to the United States, colliding with the incredible writers and experiences that came out of the “Bohemian Club.” Rathmell doesn’t even miss that title and its irony.

As definitive as their writings are the lives and acquaintances of Sam Clemens, Rudyard Kipling and so many others. The arc of Robert Louis Stevenson’s experiences are no less enthralling than his writing. Jack London’s rejection slip pile grew and who knows what would have happened and been written had he not met up with George Sterling. A walk through Chinatown into St. Mary’s church and through Quincy Alley unearths moments that allow readers to appreciate “The Bohemian Club” and the many writers more than is imaginable without these lives in context.

After reading Realms of Gold I can honestly say I will look for other books and authors who do such an important service to literature by using research and story-telling to define the times that produce such amazing writers.  

Reviewed on 12/14/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Jan Stone

   REALMS OF GOLD : The Colorful Writers Of San Francisco 1850-1950
   Author:  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 its streets and to know something of those  who walked there before you.  George Rathmell's book, REALM OF GOLD: The Colorful Writers of San Francisco 1850-1950, provides the reader this opportunity as he leads the reader through the rich and exciting history of San Francisco as well as introducing the literati who both lived it and helped shape its history.
  From cover to cover,the book 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 author covers the period spanning 1850 to 1950 and follows both the timeline of the city's development as well as the stories of of the authors who called the city home during this period and the roles they played in creating a major literary center.  The authors included Francis Bret Harte, Ina Coolbrith, Samuel Clemens, Robert Lewis Stevenson to John Steinbeck, William Saroyan and Henry Miller to name a few.  Rathmell provides such interesting and enlightening facts that I began to feel as though I knew these people. And, in a sense I did come to know them.
  There were other who played dominant roles in the city's history. Loeb (Levi) Straus came to the city 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 longer lasting garment that eventually evolved into what we know now as" jeans".  William Randolph Hearst began his quest for power in San Francisco where his first newspaper was the Examiner. "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.

Reviewed on 09/23/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Evie Harris

Published by Infinity Publishing
Reviewed for Review the Book

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 definitely 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 of the authors and entertainers who have stood the test of time were featured in this book: Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and Samuel Clemens, visitors to historic San Francisco. Clemens went by his own name for a very long time, and rarely used his Mark Twain persona until later. I must also include 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 exhileration.

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.

Reviewed on 06/09/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Betty Gelean

Author: George Rathmell
Title: Realms of Gold: The Colorful Writers of San Francisco 1850-1950
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).

Realms of Gold leaves the lingering sense that America's finest and most famous authors are not merely writers, not merely historical figures, but friends.  In those on whom Rathmell most focuses, readers nearly find family: we are thrilled when Ina Coolbrith adopts Cincinnatus Miller's half-Wintu daughter and crushed when Sam Clemens loses his life savings in the stock market (even if the outcome was infinitely better for the American public).  At once a biography of American writers, a history of the West Coast, and a detailed family portrait, Realms of Gold is a treasure not to be missed.

Reviewed on 01/21/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Dani Alexis Ryskamp

From the short description I read of Realms of Gold on a website, I was expecting to find pieces about San Francisco written by people such as Mark Twain, Brett Hart, and Henry Miller. Having lived in San Francisco, I was looking forward to this. If I’d had the chance to read the back of the book I would have known differently. As this is clearly not the writers fault, I put my expectations aside as I read this book. This is, instead, a history of one century of SF, told via the lives of it’s writers and artists. Incredibly detailed, George Rathmell has obviously spent a tremendous amount of time researching the those living in or visiting SF from 1850 -- 1950. It appears he has not left one fact out.
Rathmell’s style is not that of the typical academic tome. This book is interesting to read. The reader sees, hears, even smells the city as he moves through streets and neighborhoods. Unfortunately for the casual history fan, the book is packed with minutia and lacks a narrative focus. As an historian at heart, his structure is strictly chronological, so a brief mention of Jack London leaving for Alaska, for instance, isn’t followed by more of his life, but by intervening facts about other people. I found this disjointed style frustrating, especially since equal or more space and emphasis was given to the obscure vs. the well known. (Joaquin Miller and Ina Coolbrith, for example, compared with Mark Twain or Ambrose Bierce.)
This lack of distinction between familiar with and the less well known characters makes Realms of Gold tough going for the more casual reader. I would have preferred to follow one person throughout the book. An index would have been helpful here.
 Taken as a detailed, chronological compendium of the activities of writers and artists who populated SF during that decade, however, I would judge Realms of Gold a readable success.

(I received this book without charge in exchange for a review. I don’t review books that I wouldn’t consider reading anyway, and don’t give special consideration to books I receive for free. All opinions are my own. Honestly.) 

Reviewed on 02/03/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Teri Kelsey