PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY BY THE FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94720
No. 57 January 1974
February 10th, following a screening that after noon of the 1935 film version of Wilson's novel, Ruggles of Red Gap. Born in Oregon, Illinois on May 1st, 1867, Harry Leon Wilson grew up with the smell of print in the small town where his father owned a newspaper, and from an early age learned to set type. He quit school when he was sixteen, having studied shorthand and acquired secre tarial skills. His first job, as he recalled it, was in a furniture factory, his wages fifty cents for a ten-hour day! In November, 1884, Wilson served as stenographer first in the Omaha of fices of the Union Pacific Railroad, and a year later in the Denver offices. This position he left in December, 1885, to become secretary to Edwin Fowler of the Bancroft History Com pany, working for more than a year in Colo rado, collecting reminiscences of pioneer set "H.L." in igo8 tlers and drumming up subscriptions for the histories being issued by Hubert Howe Ban croft. Of this experience Wilson commented: Harry Leon Wilson Papers "That job was my introduction to human "... I FEEL THAT LIFE is a glorious adventure, nature." well worth while," wrote Harry Leon Wilson, During this period of his apprenticeship the famed American humorist and author, on Wilson wrote "The Elusive Dollar Bill," a October 30th, 1931, to his friend Zilpha Riley. short story based on his attempts to obtain a And indeed he lived his life with a zest as great dollar bill for a silver piece in Denver. The as that of many of his characters. Much of this story was accepted for publication in Puck, one life is reflected in his correspondence with such of the foremost humor magazines in the United fellow writers as Mark Twain, Booth Tarking- States, in December, 1886. At this time, too, ton, and H. L. Mencken, which, together with Wilson first met a young girl with the unlikely his manuscripts and other personal papers, has name of Wilbertine Nesselrode Teters, whom been presented to The Bancroft Library by his he was to marry in 1899. children, Charis Wilson of Aptos and Leon Still in the employ of the Bancroft Com Wilson of New York. A selection from this pany, Wilson arrived in California in the newly acquired collection will be shown in the summer of 1887 to work on the publication of Library's Exhibition Gallery beginning on Builders of the Commonwealth; he lived at first M in San Francisco, and later in Los Angeles. By ... the finest nose for structure and dialogue I to rework it until his death, and it was pub July, 1889, he was back in Omaha, again as ever knew." lished post-humously by his children. Wilson secretary to a Union Pacific official, Chief During this sojourn in Europe Wilson sep died quietly in his sleep on June 29th, 1939. Engineer Virgil G. Brogue. In his spare time he arated from Rose O'Neill, the creator of the wrote for Puck, while studying assiduously the "Kewpie Doll," and published an unsuccessful magazine's content for style; he particularly novel, Ewing's Lady, which he himself consid Modern Fine Bookbinding admired the work of its prominent editor, ered a distinct failure. Upon his return to the Henry Cuyler Bunner, who, in 1892, offered MORE THAN SEVENTY FRIENDS and their guests United States he roamed the California coast braved a rare Berkeley snowstorm on Thurs Wilson a position as assistant editor in New seeking a spot at which to settle, and chose a day, January 3d to attend the reception mark York. Wilson's duties consisted of selecting site in the Carmel area, overlooking the Pacific ing the opening of an exhibition of eighty-four jokes, writing stories and editorials under his Ocean. He described his choice to Julian Street: bindings from the collection of Norman H. own name as well as pseudonymously and [Carmel] is touted as a "literary and artistic Strouse of St. Helena. Including fine examples anonymously; with the death of Bunner in colony" and I believe more rejected Mss. of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth- 1896 he assumed the editorship. Meanwhile, in come to its post office than to any other of its century English and American binders, as well 1894 his first collection of stories, Zigzag Tales, size in the country. Naturally it is a hot-bed as bindings specially commissioned by Mr. was published. of gossip and all uncharitableness. . . . Strouse, the exhibition, which will continue Although Wilson found the life of a man- through February 7th, serves to introduce to a about-town in New York exciting for a time Here he met Helen Cooke, daughter of the popular novelist Grace MacGowan Cooke, wider audience an art which is little known (he characterized as a great thrill dining at Del- generally. monico's his first night in the city), ten years whom he married in 1912 when she was but Cobden-Sanderson is represented by several and a divorce later his longing for the West led seventeen, and by whom he had two children, examples, including William Morris' Art and him to write his first novel, The Spenders. The Harry Leon, Jr. and Helen Chans. And it was Socialism and his own The Ideal Book, printed $2000 advance on the book enabled him to quit here he would remain, with the exception of a by the Doves Press and bound for his wife, his job, marry Rose O'Neill, who had illus visit to the South Seas in 1923 and, again, after H.L. in ig35 Annie. Among women binders, who occupy trated his novel, and move to Rose's sprawling his separation from Helen, when he lived in out the list of works of substance written in a large part of the exhibition, are Florence fifteen-room house, "Bonniebrook," in the Portland, Oregon. Carmel. Walter, commissioned by Mr. Strouse to bind Ozarks, where he wrote his next three novels. With settlement in Carmel came the novel When Wilson returned to Carmel, after The Poems of Ernest Dow son, one of four copies His travels took him to Colorado, and to Salt ist's most productive years: his short stories and writing Lone Tree in Oregon, he led a more or on pure vellum published by Thomas B. Lake City, where he completed research for serials appeared regularly in the Saturday Eve less solitary life; his enjoyments were in the Mosher in 1902, and May Morris, whose first The Lions of the Lord, described as the first ning Post and he published a host of novels be games of golf and dominoes, in the theater, embroidered binding was accomplished for her legitimate use of Mormon life in fiction. A year ginning with Bunker Bean in 1913. H. L. visits with his friends and excursions to the father's Love is Enough. later, in 1904, he published The Seeker, deemed Mencken hailed Bunker as "a first rate comic Bohemian Grove, and always his writing. To For nine titles there are two or more variant by some critics to be an attack on Christianity; novel" and "genuine satire." Then came Zilpha Riley he commented in 1930: this was followed a year later by The Boss of Ruggles of Red Gap in 1915, the hilarious tale of bindings reflecting different aesthetic responses It has always been necessary to me that I be Little Arcady, a richly nostalgic and humorous the adventures of a British valet in the Amer to the same texts; volumes so treated include detached from crowds; that's why I live in evocation of life in a mid western town. ican West. Tarkington appraised it as "a reg'lar Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calendar, the country by myself. Here I can get far printed by the Kelmscott Press, bound by Wilson's friendship with Booth Tarkington fat Hit." An offshoot of the Ruggles book were enough from the world to reduce it—to the Doves Bindery and by Alfred deSauty, and dates from this time, and in September, 1905, the stories centered around Mrs. Lysander John size of an orange—with the consequent re C-S/The Master Craftsman, written by Mr. the two families sailed for Capri; the first draft Pettengill, some of which were assembled and duction of its troubled people, including Strouse and John Dreyfus, printed by The of their jointly-authored play, The Man from published under the title Ma Pettengill in 1919. myself. Adagio Press, and bound by Micheline de Home, was completed in 1906 in Paris. Of his A stint in Hollywood provided the back ground for the humorous Merton of the Movies, An automobile accident in June, 1932, at first Bellefroid and by Roger Powell. collaboration with Tarkington, Wilson laugh considered unimportant, later affected his eyes ingly asserted: "I did most of the work. In fact, published in 1922, of which Wilson said: Noting that "there are literally hundreds of I think it makes a readable yarn. Not until and sometimes his memory. Although his last men and women working away quietly in I did all of it. . . ." And at a later date he de years were plagued by ill health and compli scribed to his son Leon their method of work I got into the writing of it did I feel repaid modest home binderies, both here and abroad," for my four-month's sentence served on the cated by financial worries, he kept on writing. Mr. Strouse hopes that this exhibition "will ing out dialogue "speech by speech . . . (each His last work, When in the Course, was refused jeering profanely at the other's essay)." In lots down there. encourage a greater interest in fine bindings by the Post, a fact he attributed to his having among collectors, the general public, and reality, Tarkington fully appreciated Wilson's The Wrong Twin (1921), "Professor How Could dictated the story instead of creating it in his abilities, and wrote to him in 1918: "You have among those who may be tempted to become You!" (1924), and Cousin fane (1925) round usual manner on the typewriter. He continued students in the art itself." [3
©Copyright 1974 The Friends of The Bancroft Library Energy Crisis from the Past: Northern Cali TheAppert Collection Gifts of the THE SACRAMENTO CITY fornia in 1948." Dealing with an episode in California history of Mark Twain Kenneth Bechtels little publicized at the time and for the most ASSOCIATION, part forgotten since, Mr. Ross' paper is espe A REMARKABLE COLLECTION of Mark Twain THE ONLY COMPLETE COPY of the first volume of cially timely in its subject matter. Because of an the first California newspaper, the Californian, believing the ground, generally, in ami around Sacramento letters, documents, photographs, and clippings, City, t» be Public Land; and desiring to promote the pros extremely dry winter in the northern part of printed at Monterey from August 15 th, 1846 perity and harmony of persons settling thereon, has along with an account of her friendship with Resolred, That the Association will honorably regard the state in 1947-1948, a shortage of hydro to May 6th, 1847, is now in The Bancroft the following Rules and Regulations/ Clemens written by a young girl he knew late Role 1st. Every Member of the Association will use his electric power led to the rationing of power in life, has been presented to The Bancroft Library. It is one item in a splendid collection best exertions for the support of his fei!ow«assoeiates> against my ami every innovation of their JTI-ST JU<;UT*. and energy for several weeks. As the author Library by Mr. and Mrs. Kurt E. Appert of of nearly fifty volumes, two dozen broadsides, Rule 2d; Even- member desiring to obtain a Lot, must ~ "nrveyoraf the Association, whose notes: Pebble Beach. The variety of material makes and twenty-one manuscripts just presented to duty it shall he cord ami issne a Certificate for iU on, elected December lOtb, 184,% the collection a special gift for the Mark Twain the Library by Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth K. Bech Officer;rve* fo orf th the term of one year: ... for most of the affected population it was CjMRi.r.s Bcnixsoft, President. tel of Kentfield, long members of The Friends B. R. Nit KKRSOS. Vice President an inconvenience rather than a catastrophe. Papers, as such divergent and elusive items will JOHX P. Mn.osy, Treasurer, be useful in many different ways. For instance, a of The Bancroft Library. M. A, MILLION, j Space on the front page and in the history A. II. MAI.I.OUY, 1 Board of Arbitrators. * four-page letter written from St. Louis on It seems nicely appropriate that this set of the G*o.B.ttaMx, j books was usurped by more important mat <$. C, Edwards, Secretary. November 20th, i860 to his brother, Orion, Californian should be here in the Library, for it «I. PLUM BE, Surveyor and Register, ters, such as the Berlin crisis and the Presi Oft*., e over the Morris House, K street above 2d, provides new detail enabling the editors of the is the very volume which Hubert Howe Ban where aay farther information relative to the AssocMjoo dential elections. forthcoming Mark Twain's Notebook &foumals croft consulted when writing his History of can be obtained. Presently a candidate for the doctorate in the to extend the account of Clemens' activities as California. In that work Bancroft cites it as Department of Political Science, Mr. Ross a pilot on the Mississippi River. being the property "of the heirs of Ramon majored in electrical engineering at Cornell Arguello, in possession of Juan Malarin of Sta. Running in the fog on the coast, in order to 1846) printed by Sam Brannan on paper, al University and received a Master's degree in Clara, originally preserved by David Spence." beat another boat, I grounded the "Child" though Greenwood cites only an imprint on political science from the Massachusetts Insti The volume was purchased by Henry R.Wag on the bank, at nearly noodtide, where we silk. Military service records for Pedro Fages, tute of Technology. He plans to complete a ner in 1924, who in turn sold it to Thomas W. dissertation in the general area of the prize- had to stay until the "great" tide ebbed and Jose Francisco Ortega, and Manuel Vargas are Streeter in 1929; it remained in the Streeter winning paper, and during the course of his flowed again (24 hours) before she floated included among the manuscripts, as is a page Library until its sale in 1968 to John Ho well- research we expect to welcome him frequently off. ... I am sorry now that I did not hail a from the Mission San Gabriel baptismal records Books of San Francisco, from whom the Bech in the Heller Reading Room. down-stream boat and go on (September 27th to December 23 d, 1776) with tels purchased it. signatures by Fathers Miguel Sanchez, Antonio Among other magnificent items in the col Cruzado, and Jiinipero Serra. There is also a lection are the rare first printing of The Personal deed to a Benicia property, assigned by Thomas FORTIFICATIONS OF PARIS. Narrative of fames O. Pattie (Cincinnati, 1831)—Olive r Larkin and his wife Rachel to C. V. Gil the Library only held the 1833 and later reprints lespie, signed at Monterey on February 8th, —and a set of Duflot de Mofras' Exploration du 1849. Territoire de L'Oregon, des Californies et de la Mer Vermeille in its original blue boards (Paris, 1844). Also included are John Eliot's translation DaleL. Morgan Prize: of both the Old and New Testaments into the language of the Massachusetts Indians, Up- First Award Biblum God (Cambridge, 1685), the first Bible MR. STUART A. Ross is the first recipient of the printed in the English North-American colo Dale L. Morgan Prize, established to honor the nies, and Aitken's The Holy Bible (Philadelphia, memory of the staff member whose almost 1782), the earliest edition in the English lan twenty-year association with The Bancroft guage printed in the United States. Library was ended by death in 1971. Awarded mm The gift also includes broadsides so rare that to that graduate student who is judged to have rtCjvfl %*J^ mMexico. His materials from the Manuscripts Division, the miration it has excited among the people, California in October Grayson served with the books, colors, and drawing-paper were lost University Archives, the Rare Books Collec have been very grateful to my feelings. . . . California Battalion. He became a successful when their schooner was wrecked, and Gray tion, and the Archive for History of Quantum The reader will find it well to frame this map businessman in San Francisco and invested in son was forced to confine his activities to col Physics, highlighting a few important develop for future reference, so that it may aid in property there and elsewhere in the Bay area. lecting specimens and note-taking. After his ments in the history of science and technology, extending popular intelligence and dispelling Several years later, despite a fire and other return to California he had to sell the collection primarily over the past century, have been the wide-spread ignorance of the day. business reverses, income from these real estate to pay the expenses of the trip. A subsequent combined into an exhibition recently installed holdings allowed him to support his family and voyage to San Bias also ended in disappoint Clemens then printed "Official Commenda in the Joseph Cummings Rowell Exhibition be relatively free from routine business matters ment but convinced Grayson that he could ac tions" by such worthies as U. S. Grant, Brig- Case. Created by Arthur L. Norberg, Coordi so as to pursue his ornithological studies. complish more by living in Mexico. After a ham Young, and Napoleon, who commented: nator for the History of Science and Tech short residence in the Napa Valley in 1859 to "If is very nice, large print." The map and text nology Project, the exhibition, which will con collect and draw California birds, he and his will be included in a four-volume collection of tinue through March 8th, coincides with the wife settled in Mazatlan. There he spent the last Mark Twain's Early Tales and Sketches to ap annual meetings in San Francisco of the History ten years of his life, collecting, drawing, and pear later this year. of Science Society, the Society for the History writing. of Technology, and the American Association Grayson thoroughly explored the western for the Advancement of Science. "The Audubon of the West" coast of Mexico as well as the Tres Marias Letters, notebooks, photographs, rare books, Islands and Socorro Island, and contributed and transcripts of interviews included in the MORE THAN 150 superbly-colored plates and numerous articles on natural history to news exhibition cover a broad spectrum of the ac scores of definitive bird "biographies" by papers and magazines in Mexico and California. tivities not only of scientists and engineers, but Andrew Jackson Grayson, long part of the He sent many descriptions of birds as well as also of an inventor and an attorney. Abner Bancroft's collections, attest to the unwavering specimens of the birds themselves, including a Doble, inventor of the Doble Steam Car at the dedication and determination of a man whose number of previously unknown species, to the beginning of this century, produced models in life contained not a few frustrations and dis Smithsonian Institution. Although discouraged the 1920's which he sold throughout the world, appointments. Grayson was born in 1819 on by lack of supplies and funds, by the repudia and became involved in the production of other his family's Louisiana plantation. Frequent ill tion of his contract with Mexico's Academy of steam-run devices such as locomotives, lorries, ness and the lack of convenient schools delayed Science and Literature following the downfall and buses. The attorney, John Francis Neylan, his formal education but provided the ideal of Maximilian, and by the accidental death of served as a Regent of the University of Cali background to allow the development of an Road Runner, by Grayson Ins son in 1867, Grayson seized every oppor fornia from 1928 to 1955 and played an im intense love of nature in general and of birds in tunity to complete his project. Financial aid portant role in the University's expanding particular, the latter to become the dominant While he was on a surveying expedition to finally came from the Smithsonian but it was post-war scientific activities. force in his later life. When a local school was the "Tulare plains" in the San Joaquin Valley too late—Grayson was already ill with coast Representing the physical sciences and engi established he attended until his teacher found in 1853, Mrs. Grayson visited the Mercantile fever from which he died on August 17th, 1869. neering are the papers of Ernest O. Lawrence, him drawing during class exercises; his father Library in San Francisco to view an exhibition Ten years later his widow, then Mrs. G. B. founder and first director of Berkeley's Radia promptly sent him to college in Missouri with of Audubon's "Birds of America." Immediate Crane, presented his plates to the young Uni tion Laboratory; Raymond T. Birge and definite instructions not to study art! ly upon his return she took her husband to see versity of California; to this gift she later added Burton J. Moyer, both former chairmen of the Later Grayson used a small legacy to enter it. He, too, was fascinated and realized at once manuscripts and other papers. They reflect the Department of Physics at Berkeley; Gilbert N. [6 [7 Lewis, former Dean of the College of Chem Big Tree State Park. The letter is from a group MST ©IF YJMLHJA1BILE B©©!8 istry; Haraden Pratt and Emil J. Simon, elec of Sperry Papers recently presented to The trical engineers involved in developments of Bancroft Library by Mr. and Mrs. James O. FOR SALE BY radio communications in the San Francisco Bay Sperry of Berkeley, whose gift of Marsh Family H. H. Bancroft and Geo. L. Kenny, Sacramento City, California. area; and George Davidson, chief of the U.S. Papers was described in the issue of Bancroftiana EXCHANGE LIST. Ttadt Price, CASH LIST. TrmiiPrict Pacific Coast Survey, prominent astronomer, for January, 1973. It was through one of Pro Baring Deed* of American Heroes. Life at the South, or "Uncle Tom's Cabin,** As it la. With Biographical Sketches. Edited bv J O. Brayman, Esq. 500 ISmo. 91 Mt and a member of the University's pioneer fessor Hart's former students, Joseph H. Eng- Wit" Hohw all slee theipr thcountry'e bravse hono? whr blest.o sin"k to rest Being Narratives, Scenes and Incidents in the real - Life of the Lowly." faculty. beck, Jr., whose book on the history of the Noble Deeds of American Women. By W. L. G. Smith, Esq. 480 12mo. pp., beautifully illustrated. , 91 50 The papers of John Campbell Merriam, Calaveras Big Trees, Enduring Giants, has just With Biographical Sketches of some of the more prominent. Edited byTh e Life of George Washington. J4K. 0Clement pp. Ne,w Esq edition. Wit,h illustrate an introductiod enlargend by an dMm improve. L. dH . Sigourney1. 5012mo .Firs t President of the United States. New and fine, edition, with por paleontologist and Dean of the Faculties at been published, that the Sperrys learned of the trait. By Jared Sparks, L. L. D. 12mo. muslin 150 Eeeds of Naval Daring. 1 50 Wild Scenes of a Hunter's Life. Berkeley, who later, in 1921, became president Bancroft's collections. UniteOonfnininjd Stater accounts ands Grea of altl Britai then Battle durinsg fough thet latbetweee warn .th eIllustrate Naviesd o f12mo the. James L. Sperry, a cousin of Austin Sperry, Including Cummings' Adventures among the Lions, Elephants, and other of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Thrilling Adventures by Land and Bea. 1 50 wild animals of Africa. By John Frost '. 1 50 D.C, and those of William Emerson Ritter, founder of Sperry's Flouring Mills of Stockton, This is a volume filled with scenes and events, in which reality is Frost'far s Pictorial History of California. Dlus. 12mo... 1 50 more strange than romance. Edited by J. O. Braymon, 500 12mo1. 2pp5.Youat 111. t on the Diseases of the Horse. founder and first director of the Scripps Insti moved from his ancestral home in New Eng Moore's Poetical Works. With their remedies; also, practical rules to Buyers, Breakers, Smiths, tution of Oceanography at La Jolla, detail land to California in 1852. Two years later he A new and beautiful edition, on a new set of Stereotype Plates. 12mo.&c . By H. 8. Randall I.. 2515 0 significant developments in the biological purchased the Calaveras Grove, and soon, along History of the War with Mexico. Fresh Leaves from Western Woods. From the commencement of hostilities with the United States, 12to5 th e sciences prior to the first World War. with his partner John Perry, he had a thriving Being the Prose Works of Miss Metta Victoria Fuller, the "gifted Poetess Ratification of Peace. By J. S. Jenkins. 514 pp., 20 illustrations12.5 1 50 Health and Wealth. The Library's recently established History of business conducting tourists through the grove of the West." 312 12mo. pp 1 25Ho w to get, preserve and enjoy them. By Joseph Bentley, M. D. With Science and Technology Project, described in and accommodating them at his Calaveras John Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress. an Introduction to Am. Ed., by Wm. Maxwell Wood, U. 8. N. 12mo. Grove Hotel. Sperry continued to hold on to Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions. the issue of Bancroftiana for June, 1973, is con Pica type, seven illustrations', 12mo. A new and fineeditio n 1missinWit 25hg detaile Vesselds notice undesr Siofr thJohen Eng Franklin. and. Am400. 12moExpedition, illuss. in wit search mapsh of, &cthe. his share of the grove even when a new partner Scenes and Adventures in Central America. cerned with extending these important re Fleetwood's Life of Christ. By Frederick Hardman; with additions by J. O. Brayman, Esq; 40012mo sources; its program is centered initially on ship with a Frenchman led to a court battle for Sacramento City, California offering a "list of Theinvoice Life of ,Mar wityh Quee commissionn of Scotss. added, as soon as With introduction by Prof. Seager, of Buffalo. 435 12roo. pp. Dlus .. B1y 2 P5. C. Headley. Uniform with Josephine, (preparing.) 1 25 regional developments in physics and electrical possession. Sperry won the case. Thereafter, he valuable books" is included in a group of Theth Life goode of Henrs couly Clad bye oconvertef Kentuckyd int. o money... Lite of Mary, the Mother of Christ. By Horace Greeley. Uniform with J. Q. Adams. 125 engineering, particularly the growth of nuclear held the redwood grove until 1900, when a family papers recently presented to the Library The American Fruit Culturist. 400 12mo. pp. To match " Life of Christ." 1 B0Th0y Je. J.situatio Thomas. nRevise wad ans dresolve enlarged d when Kenny, 1 25 physics and the pioneer work in radio commu lumber investor, R. P.Whiteside of Minnesota, bThye Huber Bards oft thHowe Biblee .Bancroft' s son, Philip Ban who had come from Buffalo with Bancroft, nications and electronics. Historical informa assumed ownership, after purchase. crofGeot o. GilfiUanf Walnu. 12mot Creek. The implication of th. e1 00entere d a partnership with William B. Cooke tion is being gained both by acquisition of The Sperry Papers include several deeds to broadsidThe 8ilvere Ca ips othaf Sparklint theg Dropsnineteen-year-ol. d Ban terFrom. 31 man2 pyp Fountains. For the Friends of Temperance. By Mis10s0 Por to take over the stock of books, which were scientific papers and by tape recording of the land in Calaveras County, a timber report, croft engaged as a bookseller in Sacramento successfully offered for sale in a shop at the recollections of leaders in these fields. notes on happenings at Murphy's Camp from prior to opening his business in San Francisco, corner of Merchant and Montgomery streets. February 28th, 1850 through July, 1852, and but the facts of his biography show this to be It was not until five years later, in December, otherwise. Papers of James L. Sperry miscellaneous accounts, receipts, and insurance 1856, that H. H. Bancroft and Company, sta policies. There is also a quantity of material The broadside was probably printed in No tioners and booksellers, opened in San Fran I WISH YOU COULD BE HERE to enjoy the fine regarding the lawsuit of Sperry v. Eugene E. vember, 1851, at which time Bancroft was cisco, and Bancroft's new career was launched. fruit. Such a variety, apples, peaches, pears, Malbec de Montjoe, Marquis de Briges, et al, awaiting a shipment of books from his brother- nectarines, apricots, & grapes all grow in including printed transcripts, legal correspon in-law, George Derby, in Buffalo, New York. abundance on all sides of us. We have a nice dence, and deeds. In addition it contains two Before the books arrived, however, news came ™Just a Family Place" little ranch where we raised a great many commissions: one by Governor Frederick F. of Derby's sudden death from cholera, and MORE THAN SIXTY YEARS AGO Florence Tread- grapes peaches & in fact amost every thing. Low in 1864 naming Sperry a Major in the Bancroft realized that "all my plans and pur well Boynton and her amenable husband At our hotel we have a nice little garden any California Militia, and the other, in 1880, by poses . . . were at an end." He continued his Charles Calvin Boynton built, on Berkeley's quantity of trees growing ... In the fall the Governor George C. Perkins appointing him account, in Literary Industries: Buena Vista Way, the "Temple of the Wings" country is not very pleasing to the eye but to manage the Yosemite Valley and the Mari I knew very well that no one else, now that —a roof over the heads of their children. To an the rains will very soon change the general posa Big Tree Grove. Mr. Derby was dead, would do so foolish a interviewer from Sunset magazine in 1918, aspect of the country. California has a great thing as to continue shipments of goods to an Mrs. Boynton said: variety of climate. Bancroft's 1851 List inexperienced moneyless boy in California. My profession is motherhood. . . . The in So wrote James L. Sperry to his sister on July spiration came to me to build an outdoor of Valuable Books ... Having no further business in the burned- 18th, 1864, describing some of his Calaveras out mud-hole of Sacramento, I went down home where the family could live free from County holdings, which included the famous AN EXTREMELY RARE, perhaps unique copy of to [San Francisco] Kenny was with me. I domestic drudgery and convention in dress. Big Tree Grove of redwoods now encompassed an undated broadside (partially illustrated here) was determined, whatever the cost, that Mrs. We have named our open-air home of two within Stanislaus National Forest and Calaveras issued by H. H. Bancroft and George L. Kenny, Derby should have the full amount of the circular porches 'The Temple of the Wings,' [8] [ 9] included in the regular invitations to be sent to and have dedicated it to the democracy and Bancroft Fellowships the Friends later in the spring. freedom of women. FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR commencing in July, The Keepsake for 1974 will be California Life In a series of interviews just completed by the two fellowships in the Graduate Division at in 1843 by William Henry Thomes, a dictation Bancroft's Regional Oral History Office, her Berkeley are again open to candidates engaged recorded for Hubert Howe Bancroft in 1887. first child, Siilgwynn, said "She felt that every in research on a subject whose source materials Describing his voyage to Monterey and to year was wasted if she didn't have [a child]." are available in The Bancroft Library. Students other California ports, Thomes' dictation is It is not easy to speculate in what way Florence from any of the University's nine campuses being edited by Professor Emeritus George R. Boynton would have responded to the free may apply, provided that they are residents of Stewart. doms most women enjoy today. But through California and beyond the first year of graduate the interviews with Siilgwynn and her husband study. Each fellowship will yield a stipend, plus Charles Quitzow, and with their children Vol required University registration fees. and OEloel, the ideas which fashioned the The Library is delighted that these fellow Boynton way of life become clearer, and the ships are being offered for the third successive Council of The Friends reader may see how these ideas continue to year and looks forward to welcoming in the underscore the lives of the family's present Heller Reading Room the two students who Norman H. Strouse, James D. Hart generation. will be chosen. During the past two years the Chairman Mrs. Edward H. Heller Impetus for documenting the history of the Bancroft Fellows have accomplished research William P. Barlow, Jr. Preston Hotchkis Henry Miller Bowles Warren R. Howell "Temple of the Wings" came from the Friends Florence Boynton in center, with Rhea at left into such diverse areas as the Mexican short of the Quitzows, under the leadership of Mrs. William Bronson Joseph A. Moore, Jr. story, poetry in the San Francisco Bay area, the Mrs. John E. Cahill Warren Olney III Margaretta Mitchell and Mrs. Elizabeth and the town came around to stare. According to her second daughter, Rhea Boynton Hilde- Stuart masque, and a twelfth-century German E. Morris Cox William H. Orrick, Jr. Weekes and comprising the students and fam manuscript. brand: Henry Dakin Atherton M. Phleger ilies who have enjoyed what the dance lessons Charles de Bretteville There was a time when to be part of the Harold G. Schutt of the Quitzows have meant and who will not Mrs. Vernon L. Goodin Mrs. Calvin K. Townsend forget the Temple recitals and costumes, and Boynton family was something that people Annual Meeting: May 19th Mrs. Gerald H. Hagar George P. Hammond, raised their eyebrows about, but now it's the "tradition of Isadora Duncan." The fund- THE DATE FOR THE TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL Honorary raising efforts of this group financed a film really something. There's a history there. Siilgwynn and Rhea (who added an After Meeting of The Friends of The Bancroft Li which has been deposited in the Library. How brary has been set for Sunday afternoon, May Editor, Bancroftiana: J. R. K. Kantor ever, the Friends were unable to do as much to word to the first volume) remember the time and the place well. And although Charles 19th. Dr. James Thorpe, Director of the Henry document the life of the Temple as they wished, E. Huntington Library in San Marino will be Contributors to this issue: Douglas Anderson, Fred and in 1972 Mr. Henry Dakin, a member of the Quitzow and Siilgwynn were not married erick Anderson, Marie Byrne, Mary Ellen Jones, the principal speaker. Further details will be Arthur L. Norberg, Suzanne Riess. Council of The Friends of The Bancroft Li until 1924, years before that the Temple was to brary, undertook to fund a series of interviews him "a pleasanter place to come than anything to be completed by ROHO. The two volumes in San Francisco or Alameda, just a home, you which have resulted are now available for con know, just a family place." sultation, and some of the conjecture and won It was a center, as well, and a concrete re derment about the Temple can be resolved. minder of the days of the "Athens of the West." In 1911 the Boyntons lived on their land, The interviews populate it with members of overlooking the University of California's the Duncan family—Isadora and Raymond campus, in the "camp"—designed by Bernard and Gus—and the Quitzows all delight in Maybeck—and "Tony the Italian" leveled the reminiscing about their friend Jose Limon, an site with "scraper and mule and a pick and other famed dancer. Photographs from the shovel." Then, with the columns in place and family collection illustrate the two volumes, the domes overhead, their remarkable home and the Library has also copied an additional was ready. Undrawn awnings were hung be number of photographs, one of them shown tween the columns, allowing maximum light here, which give a clearer idea of the differences and air; when drawn they protected the resi between the original Temple and that which dents against the rain of winter. rose from the ashes of the great Berkeley fire Mrs. Boynton was not averse to publicity, of1923. [10] ["1 "From a transparency which was taken by Dr. C. Hart Merriam and given to me. William Keith and John Muir are at the foot of the trees. Alice Eastwood" [From the Sierra Club Papers)
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