San Francisco - A History of the Pacific Coast Metropolis, Vol. 1 & 2

Published 1912

Ltd. Numbered Edition, Signed 

by James P. Young

The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, San Francisco Chronicle

This includes a 21"x 16.5" fold out topographical survey map usually missing. It was glued in folded up and you had to detach it to unfold it. Since it was then no longer attached, it was easy to lose.

These volumes were a project of one of the many local newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle. The number of copies printed was limited, at least to the number of people who wanted to buy one. 

I've had a couple of other Chronicle limited edition books. Fairly nice binding but they all shared the same defect-the outer cut of the pages were cut just a little wide, missing a few pages and leaving them still attached to each other. I found four 'sets' of these in volume one, none so far  in volume two. 

The story told here is a journalistic take on the history of the town that at that time of publication seems hardly old enough to warrant 956 pages of text. You'd be wrong. I'll quote the author here-

"Although the period of active life of San Francisco has been a short one, as historical periods go, it has been crowded with incident. Enough of the latter could be found to present a vivid picture of the career of the metropolis of the Pacific coast, but in this work something more has been attempted than a mere recital of occurrences. It has been the purpose of the author to trace the causes of the growth of the City, and to describe the manifold activities of its citizens". 

And does it ever! It's a tale of greed and excess riddled with corruption and lurid accounts of mayhem and murder. As well as a disastrous earthquake, referred to almost exclusively as "the Great Fire".

"Manifold activities of its citizens", indeed!

This edition was from the reference desk at the San Francisco Museum library. of the San Francisco Historical Society so it. wasn't available to check out. You had to read it there.