Re: Books that you’d suggest about the history and flavor of San Francisco

07/21/07 - posted by Mary-Ann

"Fire", "Storm" & "Earth Abides" (SciFi) by George R. Stewart are excellent California fictional stories and I had thought these were the only books Stewart (who I believe was a State employee meteorologist???) had written. Angus, I'm curious about "Committee of Vigilance" - was that a non-fiction work? I'll be searching for it - (lotsa luck)
I can also highly recommend the California history series by Kevin Starr already mentioned and currently in print.

A few others that might be easily found are:

"San Francisco - Building the Dream City" by James Beach Alexander & James Lee Heig (2002) covers the structures built and historical data from the Spanish settlement of 1776, the pre gold rush period, the layout of streets and more permanent buildings to the 1940s with an epilogue: San Francisco at the Millenium - not enough about the Outsidelands, though. An oversized book.


King & Queen of the River - story of the River Lines and the Delta Queen & Delta King from the '20s to the 1990's by Stan Garvey (1995).


Three books about Pan American's Pacific flights from my husband's collection:
"Wings to the Orient" by Stan Cohen - pictorial history of the clipper planes 1935 to 1945 - a softcover book (1985 and last reprint listed 1999)
"Pan Am" by Barnaby Conrad III (1999) An oversized book.
"Pacific Pioneers" - The Rest of the Story by Jon E. Krupnick (2000) - pictorial history of Pan Am's Pacific first flights 1935 to 1945. An oversized book.