Hinton Rowan Helper (1829–1909)

A great read. California started out messed up and has remained that way to date. Gives a really good feel for California at the time of the gold rush. At least, from the point of view of a pre-Civil War southerner. Conservative and moderately racist, there really is very little in the book about mining and more about the culture of the time. It brings to mind two things: 1) In a certain respect Hinton Helper predicts the arrival about seventeen years later of Mark Twain in Roughing It. He doesn't pull off the snark nearly as well, however. 2) I also recalled the film paint Your Wagon....much of the mining scenes and especially the bull and bear fight on a Sunday (after coming down hard on the populace for not engaging in worship on said day). Good stuff....I think Twain had to have read this book as well as the folks producing Paint Your Wagon.… (meer)