Some Recollections of a Busy Life: The Forgotten Story of the Real Town of Hollister, California

T. S. Hawkins led an astounding life. Born in 1836, he grew up just down the way from Mark Twain in Missouri, in a log cabin. He became a teacher at age 17, and owned his own general store at 21. A few years later, he set out in a covered wagon, and made his way across the plains to California. He and some other farmers got together and founded the town of Hollister, and Hawkins went on to build a hospital in his granddaughter’s name. It stands today. His whole life is related in a self-published autobiography, Some Recollections of a Busy Life. He printed a few hundred copies of this book in 1913, and it’s been out of print since then.

T. S. Hawkins led an astounding life. Born in 1836, he grew up just down the way from Mark Twain in Missouri, in a log cabin. He became a teacher at age 17, and owned his own general store at 21. A few years later, he set out in a covered wagon, and made his way across the plains to California. He and some other farmers got together and founded the town of Hollister, and Hawkins went on to build a hospital in his granddaughter’s name. It stands today. His whole life is related in a self-published autobiography, Some Recollections of a Busy Life. He printed a few hundred copies of this book in 1913, and it’s been out of print since then.

Dave Eggers is the best-selling author of ten books including A Hologram for the King, a finalist for the National Book Award;Zeitoun, winner of the American Book Award and Dayton Literary Peace Prize; andWhat Is the What, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won France’s Prix Medici. Eggers lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.