Gold Fever: One Man's Adventures on the Trail of the Gold Rush - Hardcover

Boggan, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780746962 ISBN 13: 9781780746968

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2015

Synopsis

A freakishly charming travel memoir of a man just like you: intelligent, curious, motivated, fun, and intentionally positive. With those traits, zero gold-locating skills, and some huge balls, Boggan sets out on a humongous adventure: searching for gold in the American West. ”
Library Journal, "Books for Dudes"

After the Financial Crisis, the price of gold reached peaks never before seen in history. All over the world, particularly in the US, people with no experience of prospecting began shopping for shovels, pickaxes, gold pans, tents, generators, and all manner of equipment they had no idea how to use. And off they went mining.

In 2013, Steve Boggan decided he wanted a piece of the action, flying to San Francisco to join the 21st century’s gold rush in a quest to understand the allure of the metal and maybe find a bit for himself, too. The result is GOLD FEVER, a travelogue like no other. Boggan also takes readers back in time to the original San Franciscan gold rush, two centuries ago, and gets a crash course in the science and economics of gold. Written with Boggan’s characteristic wit and self-effacing charm, GOLD FEVER is a hugely entertaining travelogue.

About this title

About the Author

Steve Boggan has been a news, features, and investigative journalist for more than 30 years. A former chief reporter with The Independent, he has also written extensively for The Times, The Guardian, The London Evening Standard, and the Daily Mail. His first book, Follow the Money: A Month in the Life of a Ten-Dollar Bill, was published in 2012. He lives in London.

Review

"This is a fun book.... Boggan is a hugely likeable companion."
The Spectator

A freakishly charming travel memoir of a man just like you: intelligent, curious, motivated, fun, and intentionally positive. With those traits, zero gold-locating skills, and some huge balls, Boggan sets out on a humongous adventure: searching for gold in the American West. Boggan, a journalist, writes with that special panache that sparks readers to keep reading ... An excellent writer telling a fun and interesting story.”
Library Journal, "Books for Dudes"

Steve Boggan is an amazing writer who always brings to vivid life everyday people doing interesting and extraordinary things. He is somehow able to make people forget that he is a journalist and relate to him as an ordinary guy. The result in Gold Fever is a series of adventures, his own and those of others, both present and throughout the past history of gold rushes. This book is no 'fool's gold', but the real thing.’
Luke Rhinehart, author of The Dice Man
"'[GOLD FEVER] is a beautiful book - funny, poignant, and well-written."
Rudy Maxa, host of Rudy Maxa's World, America’s #1 travel radio show

Boggan's narrative and persona are charming.”
Kirkus Reviews

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

"A dandy travelogue full of colorful stories from the past and from [Boggan’s] own adventures. It is a rollicking story, and he tells it with just the right outsider's humor . what he appreciates and conveys to the reader with a smiling wisdom, is a version of the American Dream. Sure, these prospectors all want to get rich; as Boggan explains in his introduction, 'You see, looking for gold is no more complicated than playing the lottery. You know the odds are stacked against you, but you buy a ticket anyway.' But the dreamers here, and Boggan himself, have found a bit of gold, but also plenty of adventure, kindness, and a mother lode of contentment.”
Rob Hardy, Books Columnist, The Dispatch

"An excellent book ... superb, entertaining reading."
San Francisco Book Review

"Terrific. Pack your bag, grab your pick, and set out with master storyteller, Steve Boggan, for a trip in this highly original travelogue."
Daniel Klein, New York Times bestselling co-author of Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar

Great. An exciting adventure, proving that prospecting is as much about digging for humor and hope as it is finding gold.”
Jennifer Pharr Davis, author of Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail

GOLD FEVER is a wonderful mix of history, journalism and good old-fashioned adventure. Boggan is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and he shares his experiences and findings with great depth, humour and charisma.”
Leon McCarron, author of The Road Headed West: A Cycling Journey Through North America

"A well-crafted story with heady fast-forward momentum. A dogged investigator’s obsessive quest for Californian gold, and the backstory of the gold fields."
Iain Sinclair, author of London Orbital

"Steve Boggan is an amazing writer who always brings to vivid life everyday people doing interesting and extraordinary things. He is somehow able to make people forget that he is a journalist and relate to him as an ordinary guy. The result in GOLD FEVER is a series of adventures, his own and those of others, both present and throughout the past history of gold rushes. This book is no 'fool's gold', but the real thing."
George Cockcroft (also known as Luke Rhinehart) author of The Dice Man

"A perfect mixture of travelogue, history and down and dirty experience, leavened by rich veins of humor and pathos. A gem, or should I say a nugget."
Mick Conefrey, author of The Ghosts of K2

Edition details

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1780746962
• ISBN 13: 9781780746968
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336