The Western Gate: A San Francisco Reader

by Joseph Henry Jackson (Editor)

Literary editor, and author of many books, Mr. Jackson has brought together a generous collection that gives a panoramic view of the most colorful of American towns. The book is in four “Before the Gold”, “The Gold Rush”, “City in the Making” and “City of Our Times”; and takes the reader from the sleepy Spanish town of Yerba Buena to present-day San Francisco, the glamorous western gate of the continent. It reads as though it were an integrated history, as Mr. Jackson binds it together with an unusual selection of prose and poetry, fiction and fact. We find Bret Harte, of course; Stevenson and Bierce, Twain and London and Norris; but along with them are William Tecumseh Sherman, Anthony Trollope, John Charles Fremont, Emperor Norton I and selections from the almost unknown journals and diaries of Spanish padres, Russian traders and Yankee gold-seekers. This is Americana, but sharp, too, a fine gathering of super-reporters and intense observes. The Western Gate is the latest volume in the City and Country Readers Series.

524 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Western Gate, A San Francisco Reader", edited by Joseph Henry Jackson, 1952. I am convinced that no other city in America could have been the muse for such inspired, prolific writing. "The Reader" is a compendium of writing set chronologically, running the gamut from the poetry of Robert Frost, to excerpts from Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast". Included are prose from heavy weight authors like Twain, Kipling, London, Ernest Gann, Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as scores of other first hand accounts from lesser known personas. All in all, over seventy writers share their reflections and experiences of a much beloved San Francisco.