THE SHIRLEY LETTERS FROM CALIFORNIA MINES IN 1851-52: Being a Series of Twenty-Three Letters from Dame Shirley (Mrs. Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe) to her Sister in Massachusetts and now Reprinted from the Pioneer Magazine of 1854-55 with Synopses of the Letters, a Foreword, and Many Typographical and other Corrections and Emendations, by Thomas C. Russell, Together with "An Appreciation" by Mrs. M.V.T. Lawrence

Clappe, Louise Amelia Knapp Smith writing as Dame Shirley

Published by Thomas C. Russell, San Francisco, 1922

About this Item

The first edition in book form. Out of an edition of 450 copies, this is one of the 200 printed on California bond-paper and signed by the publisher, with eight hand-colored line block relief prints from drawings based on old prints of life in the California Gold Fields. First published serially in "The Pioneer" magazine in 1854-55, these celebrated letters offer an insightful and vivid account of everyday life in a California mining town. Having sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco, Clappe (1819-1906) joined her husband at Rich Bar in September 1851, and wrote a series of 23 letters between 1851 and 1852 to her sister back home in Massachusetts. Although not originally intended for publication, the letters are a carefully composed commentary upon a masculine society in which "Dame Shirley" wittily and sometimes sentimentally displays her realistic observations of a coarse and barbarous way of life. Clappe later worked as a school teacher in San Francisco, before returning to the East in 1878. Octavo. Original gray paper-covered boards over a natural cloth spine, with a printed paper spine label. A near fine copy, with the dust jacket which appears to have been miscut or neatly trimmed. The Zamorano Eighty 69.

Seller Inventory # 75500

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE SHIRLEY LETTERS FROM CALIFORNIA MINES IN 1851-52: Being a Series of Twenty-Three Letters from Dame Shirley (Mrs. Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe) to her Sister in Massachusetts and now Reprinted from the Pioneer Magazine of 1854-55 with Synopses of the Letters, a Foreword, and Many Typographical and other Corrections and Emendations, by Thomas C. Russell, Together with "An Appreciation" by Mrs. M.V.T. Lawrence
• Publisher: Thomas C. Russell, San Francisco
• Publication Date: 1922
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Near fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • California