Carl Palm

I am a fourth-generation Californian and it was here that I received all of my early education, right through my first four years of college. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the early 1970s, I shot off to do graduate work at the University of Toronto. The idea was to become a university English professor, but that ambition never quite worked out. (I did get a PhD, however.) For the past fifteen years I have taught English composition at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, largely to give my mind a little extracurricular exercise.

In any case, I have long found the subject of California endlessly fascinating and the goal of my books is to share that fascination with my readers. My first book, The Great California Story: Portrait of a Place That Is One of a Kind (3rd ed. 2026) is the "big picture" book of the two. My second one, This Day in California History (rev. ed. 2024), serves up dozens of additional details about the Golden State. In the end, these books are probably best thought of as companion pieces, different takes on the same, great subject.