Bancroft publications
The Bancroft Library is recognized around the world for its special collections of historical materials.
Our publications
Bancroftiana
Search the UC Berkeley Library’s Digital Collections site for all indexes and issues of Bancroftiana. Users can also use full text search to find an individual name or word.
Press publications
None of The Bancroft Library Press Publications are for sale. Copies are only available for viewing in the Reading Room.
For opportunities to learn more, see the The Bancroft Library Press course.
2017
El Carrero de la Basura Pide un Favor
Introduction and translation by José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2017
Call number forthcoming
2016
My Diamond Sutra: New and Selected Poems
By Joseph Stroud
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2016
Call number forthcoming
Mark Twain's American Menu
By Mark Twain; Introduction by Robert Hirst
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2016
Call number forthcoming
2015
The famous battle horse of Emiliano Zapata
Introduction by Ramon Hernandez and Theresa Salazar; Translation by Charles Faulhaber
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2015
Sixty copies printed
Call number: pf PQ7297.A1 F3613 2015
En Cuba
By John Brandi
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2015
Sixty copies printed
Call number forthcoming
2014
The Bookworm
Edited by Les Ferriss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2014
Sixty copies printed
Call number forthcoming
Horace: Four Odes from Book One
By Quintus Horatius Flaccus; Translation by Michael Taylor
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2014
Call number forthcoming
2013
Pastures New
By Michael McClure
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2013
Sixty copies printed
Call number forthcoming
Cloud Pavilion: A Kyoto Suite
By John Brandi
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2013
Call number: f PS3552.R297 C56 2013
Six Poems
By Gary Young
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2013
Call number forthcoming
2012
And Who Wants Peace? Adrian Wilson at The Greenwood Press
By Adrian Wilson; Introduction by Jack Stauffacher
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2012
Call number: pf Z232.W75.A3 2012
The Severist Manifesto
By Belle Randall
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2012
Fifty copies printed
Call number: pf PS3568.A488.S48 2012
Thom & Belle: A Constant Friendship
By Thom Gunn and Belle Randall
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2012
Fifty copies printed: bound in Canson wrappers
Call number: pf PS3568.A488.Z48 2012
2011
Prospero Alpino on Coffee
By Prospero Alpino; Translation by Brendan Haug
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2011
Forty copies printed: bound in Canson wrappers
Call number: pf RM246 A47 2011
Ecological Eclogues
By George R. Stewart
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2011
Forty copies printed: bound in Canson wrappers
Call number: pf PS3537.T48545.E36 2011
Anton Francesco Doni: Reflections on a Florentine Printer
By Jack Werner Stauffacher
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2011
Forty-five copies printed: bound in Canson wrappers
Call number: pf PQ4621.D5.Z875 2011
Bruce Conner: On Drugs (and Art)
By Bruce Conner; Introduction by Dean Smith
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2011
Forty-five copies printed: bound in Canson wrappers
Call number: pf NC139.C658.A3 2011
2010
On Board Orizaba
By Helen Hunt Jackson; Introduction by Dylan Esson
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2010
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf PS2107.O5 2011
Zapata and Mexican Land Reform
By Emiliano Zapata; Introduction by Paul Ramirez; Translation by Charles B. Faulhaber
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2010
Thirty-five copies printed: bound in Canson wrappers
Call number: pf F1234.Z3 R36 2010
Jess: Seven Versions from the Gallowsongs of Morgenstern
By Jess
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2010
Forty-five copies printed: bound in Canson wrappers
Call number: pf PS3553.O4748.G3 2010
The Massacre at Sand Creek: Dictation taken from Mrs. J. W. Prowers, West Las Animas, July 19, 1886
By Amy Prowers; Introduction by Theresa Salazar
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2010
Forty-six copies printed
Call number: pf E83.863 .P76 2010
2009
Letters from Mississippi
By Mario Savio; Introduction by Robert Cohen
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2009
Seventy-five copies printed
Call number: pf E185.93.M6 S38 2009
Our First Great Blue Columbine
By Florence Merriam Bailey; Introduction by Susan Snyder
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2009
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf SB413.C634 B34 2009
My School House
By Elizabeth Powell; Introduction by Susan Snyder
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2009
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf LC5147.C2 P6 2009
2008
Rights of Beast
By Michael McClure
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2008
Forty-five copies printed: bound in illustrated paper wrappers
Call number: pf PS3563.A262.R5 2008
2007
Book Thieves and Literary Spirits: Hubert Howe Bancroft Award Acceptance Speech
By Isabel Allende
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2007
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf PQ8098.1.L54.B66 2007
Jess: Three Poems
By Jess; Afterword by Norma Cole
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2007
Thirty-five copies printed: bound in gray paper wrappers
Call number: pf PS3553.O4748.J47 2007
2006
My Dear Mac: Three Letters by Ambrose Bierce
By Ambrose Bierce; Introduction by Gray Brechin
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2006
Thirty copies printed: bound in dark red paper wrappers
Call number: pf PS1097.Z5.A4 2006
2005
123 W. Longitude, 38 N. Latitude: Anne W. Booth's 1849 Journal
By Anne W. Booth; Introduction by Theresa Salazar
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2005
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf F865.B668 2005
Map Poems
By Jack Spicer; Introduction by Kevin Killian and Peter Gizzi
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2005
Thirty-five copies printed: bound in brown paper wrappers
Call number: pf PS3569.P47.M37 2005
2004
April 18, 1906: From the Knox Papers
Introduction by Theresa Salazar
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2004
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf F869.S3.A67 2004
In the Line of the Grotesque and Monstrous
By Clark Ashton Smith; Introduction by D. S. Black
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2004
Fifty copies printed: bound in burnt orange wrappers
Call number: pf PS3537.M335.Z487 2004
2003
Africa
By Ruth Weiss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2003
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf PS3573.E46.A35 2003
2002
The Narrative of H. D. La Motte, California Adventurer: His Account of the Discovery of Humboldt Bay
By Harry Didier La Motte; Introduction by Gray Brechin
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2002
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf F868.H8.L2 2002
A Bear Hunt: Narrative of a Journey from St. Louis to California, via Fort Leavenworth, Fort Union and Santa Fe, and Thence across Arizona, 1857-1858
By Henry Washington Carver
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2000
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: SK295.C38 2002
2001
Britomar's Road Diaries: August 1935
By Britomar Lathrop
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2001
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf CT275.L2765.B7 2001
Crystals: kriz
By Philip Lamantia
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2001
Forty-five copies printed: sewn into Fabriano wrappers
Call number: pf PS3562.A42.C79 2001
2000
Select One or More: Poems
By Ted Joans
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2000
Bound in brown paper wrappers and inscribed by the author
Call number: pf PS3560.O2.S35 2000
Bloody Murder in San Francisco
By Llewellyn Zublin; Introduction by Theresa Salazar
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 2000
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf F869.S3.Z8 2000
1999
Antoninus on Antoninus: A Letter from Brother Antoninus to Allan Campo
By William Everson; Introduction by Allan Campo
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1999
Fifty copies printed: bound in green paper wrappers
Call number: pf PS3509.V65.Z483 1999
A Display of Printing Types
Edited by Les Ferriss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1999
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf Z250.D57 1999
1998
The Last Words of Arthur Rimbaud
By Barry Gifford
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1998
Forty copies printed: signed by the author
Call number: pf PS3557.I283.L37 1998
Seeing the Elephant: Excerpts from the Gold Rush Journal of E. A. Ingalls
By E. A. Ingalls; Edited by Les Ferriss; Foreward by Kerwin Lee Klein
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1998
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf F865.I49 1998
1997
My Dear Rearden: A Letter
By Ambrose Bierce; Introduction by Les Ferriss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1997
Call number: pf PS1097.Z5.A4 1997
Letters from a Young Writer
By Thomas Sanchez
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1997
Forty-five copies printed
Call number: pf PS3569.A469.Z483 1997
1996
From Work-In-Progress
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1996
Fifty copies printed: bound in illustrated paper wrappers
Call number: ff PS3511.E557.F7 1996
Soul Cinders
By Michael McClure
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1996
Forty-five copies printed: bound in red paper wrappers
Call number: PS3563.A262.S67 1996
1995
Would You Like to Saddle Up a Couple of Goldfish and Swim to Alaska?
By Richard Brautigan; Introduction by Burton I. Weiss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1995
Fifty copies printed
Call number: PS3503.R2736.W6 1995
The Sparrows Move South: Early Poems
By Gary Soto
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1995
Thirty-five copies printed: signed by the author
Call number: p PS3569.O72.S6 1995
1994
A Letter from Guatemala
By Gómez Díaz de la Reguera; Introduction by Anne Mohr; Translation by Vikki DuRee
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1994
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf F1463.3.D5 1994
Lumberjacks & Cowboys
By Elers Koch
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1994
Thirty-five copies printed: bound in gray illustrated paper wrappers
Call number: p F731.5.K6 1994
1993
Exploring the Edge: Giustiniani's Account of Columbus in the Margins of the 1516 Polyglot Psalter
By Agostino Giustiniani; Introduction by Anthony Bliss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1993
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: p E111.G5 1993
Type Founders' Grievance: Reprinted from Caslon's Circular, Volume III, Number 8, January 1877
Introduction by Hermann Zapf
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1993
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: p Z589.T9 1993
1992
A Sea Journey
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1992
Thirty-five copies printed: bound in blue paper wrappers
Call number: PS3511.E557.S42 1992; A6.5 no. 421
An Account of Type Founding: Reprinted from Caslon's Circular Volume II, Number 5, January 1876
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1992
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf Z250.A533 1992
1991
Upon Hearing Leonard Wolf's Poem on a Madhouse, January 13, 1947
By Robert Edward Duncan
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1991
Forty-one copies printed
Call number: pf PS3507.U629.U6 1991
1990
An Earthly Paradise
By Katherine Adams; Introduction by Anthony Bliss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1990
Thirty copies printed
Call number: Z232.M872.A43 1990
1989
Sarah Prideaux: A Pupil's Tribute
By Katharine Adams; Introduction by Anthony Bliss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1989
Twenty-five copies printed
Call number: Z269.2P75.A43 1989
Walks about Berkeley
By Cornelius Beach Bradley
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1989
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf F869.B5.B84 1989
1988
A Typeface for the University: Being a Letter Written by Frederic W. Goudy in December 1936
By Frederic W. Goudy; Introduction by Wesley B. Tanner
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1988
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: pf Z232.G68.A425 1988
1987
Boscovich in Baja California
By Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich; Introduction by Robin E. Rider; Translation by Roger Hahn
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1987
Twenty-five copies printed
Call number: p Q143.B7.A33 1987
Receipts from Newton Cottage
Printer's note by Wesley B. Tanner
Berkeley, CA: Bancroft Library Press, 1987
Thirty copies printed
Call number: p TX717.R4 1987
1986
A Collection of Printed Books of Hours at The Bancroft Library
Introduction by Patrick J. Russell Jr.
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1986
Twenty-five copies printed
Call number: p Z7838.H6.B3 1986
Wooded Up in Log Town: A Letter from the Gold Fields, 1851
By William Binur; Introduction by Dr. Richard Schwab
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1986
Thirty copies printed
Call number: p F865.B55 1986
1985
A Supper in Montmartre
By Harriet Lane Levy; Introduction by James D. Hart
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1985
Thirty copies printed
Call number: f F860.L575.A3 1985
1984
"I Do Set a Clean Proof"
By Mark Twain; Afterword by Robert Hirst
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1984
Twenty-five copies printed
Call number: p PS1331.A3 1984
A Selection of Type Ornaments: The Merrymount Press Collection of Daniel Berkeley Updike Now at The Bancroft Library
Printer's note by Wesley B. Tanner
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1984
Twenty-five copies printed
Call number: pf Z232.M515.S4 1984
1983
On Making the Emerson Type
By Joseph Blumenthal
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1983
Twenty copies printed
Call number: pf Z250.E52.B5 1983
Fighting Terms: A Selection
By Thom Gunn
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1983
Twenty-five copies printed: bound in black wrappers
Call number: pf PR6013.U65.F5 1983
Dear Mr. de Coverly: Six Letters Written Between 1883 & 1914
By T. J. Cobden-Sanderson; Foreword by Anthony Bliss
Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press, 1983
Thirty-five copies printed
Call number: TYP AA1.A3.C564 1983
Special publications
Many of our special publications can be purchased through The Bancroft Store. Please contact bancroft-library@berkeley.edu for availability and pricing.
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3
Edited by Benjamin Griffin, Harriet Elinor Smith, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Amanda Gagel, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick, and Christopher M. Ohge, 2015
Created from March 1907 to December 1909, these dictations present Mark Twain at the end of his life: receiving an honorary degree from Oxford University; railing against Theodore Roosevelt; founding numerous clubs; incredulous at an exhibition of the Holy Grail; credulous about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays; relaxing in Bermuda; observing (and investing in) new technologies. The Autobiography's "Closing Words" movingly commemorate his daughter Jean, who died on Christmas Eve 1909. Also included in this volume is the previously unpublished "Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript," Mark Twain's caustic indictment of his "putrescent pair" of secretaries and the havoc that erupted in his house during their residency.
At last the Autobiography of Mark Twain is made available as it was intended to be read. The text of all three volumes, with annotations and full critical apparatus, is available at Mark Twain Project Online. 
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2
Edited by Benjamin Griffin, Harriet E. Smith, Victor Fischer, Michael Barry Frank, Sharon K. Goetz, and Leslie Diane Myrick, 2013
Mark Twain's complete, uncensored Autobiography was an instant bestseller when the first volume was published in 2010, on the centennial of the author's death, as he had requested. Published to rave reviews, the Autobiography was hailed as the capstone of Twain's career. It captures his authentic and unsuppressed voice, speaking clearly from the grave and brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions.
Volume 2, published in 2013, delves deeper into Mark Twain's life, uncovering the many roles he played in his private and public worlds. Filled with his characteristic blend of humor and ire, the narrative ranges effortlessly across the contemporary scene. He shares his views on writing and speaking, his preoccupation with money, and his contempt for the politics and politicians of his day. Affectionate and scathing by turns, his intractable curiosity and candor are everywhere on view. 
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith, Benjamin Griffin, Victor Fischer, Michael Barry Frank, Sharon K. Goetz, and Leslie Diane Myrick, 2010
"I've struck it!" Mark Twain wrote in a 1904 letter to a friend. "And I will give it away—to you. You will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography." Thus, after dozens of false starts and hundreds of pages, Twain embarked on his "Final (and Right) Plan" for telling the story of his life. His innovative notion—to "talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment"—meant that his thoughts could range freely. The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be "dead, and unaware, and indifferent," and that he was therefore free to speak his "whole frank mind."
The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain's death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain's works, Berkeley Press is proud to offer for the first time Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography in its entirety and exactly as he left it. This major literary event brings to readers, admirers, and scholars the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended.
Many of our special publications can be purchased through The Bancroft Store. Please contact bancroft-library.berkeley.edu for availability and pricing.
Teaching the Slow Event
By Lyn Hejinian, 2017
The thirteenth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
"This Bequest of Wings" On Teaching Poetry in a Region of Conflict
By Rachel Tzvia Back, 2016
The twelfth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
Body Musics and the Empire of Time
By Ross Gay, 2015
The eleventh Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
Hog Killing
By Nikky Finney, 2014
The tenth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
The Life of Creative Translation
By Gary Snyder, 2013
The ninth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
Learning from Translation
By Chana Bloch, 2012
The eighth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
A History of My Befuddlement
By Philip Levine, 2009
The sixth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment and accomplishments and abundance of Judith's life.
Poetry, Love, and Mercy
By Carl Phillips, 2009
The fifth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
What Does an Elegy Do?
By Sharon Olds, 2009
The fourth Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
Cracks in the Oracle Bone: Teaching Certain Contemporary Poems
By Brenda Hillman, 2008
The third Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment, accomplishments, and abundance of Judith's life.
"You Only Guide Me by Surprise": Poetry and the Dolphin's Turn
By Peter Sacks, 2007
The second Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment and accomplishments and abundance of Judith's life. Peter Sacks gives an inspiring lecture about the origins of poetry, conjuring ancient and mystical connections among dolphins, poets, and poetic inspiration.
On Teaching Poetry
By Robert Hass, 2006
The first Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture on the Teaching of Poetry was part of an event recognizing the commitment and accomplishments and abundance of Judith's life. A commemoration of Judith’s love of poetry and her love of teaching, this lecture (led by Robert Hass) relights the lamp of her brilliance that was extinguished on November 29, 2002.
Many of our special publications can be purchased through The Bancroft Store. Please contact bancroft-library@berkeley.edu for availability and pricing.
Literary Industries: Chasing a Vanishing West
By Hubert Howe Bancroft and edited by Kim Bancroft, 2013
A bookseller in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, Hubert Howe Bancroft (1832-1918) rose to become the man who would define the early history of California and the West. Creating what he called a "history factory," he assembled a vast library of more than sixty thousand books, maps, letters, and documents; hired scribes to copy material in private hands; employed interviewers to capture the memories of early Spanish and Mexican settlers; and published multiple volumes sold throughout the country by his subscription agents. In 1890 he published an eight-hundred-page autobiography, aptly entitled Literary Industries.
Literary Industries sparkles with the exuberance of nineteenth-century California and introduces us to a man of great complexity and wit. Edited and abridged for the modern reader yet relating the history of the West as it was taking place—and as it was being recorded—Kim Bancroft's edition of Literary Industries is a joy to read.
Beyond Words: 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries
By Susan Snyder, 2011
Beyond Words is a collection of excerpts from 50 illustrated diaries spanning 200 years of adventure and contemplation. From the records of 18th-century Spanish explorer Pedro Font to those of a young David Brower first encountering the wilderness, these unfolding stories reveal as much about the times in which they were written as they do the diarists’ particular inner worlds. Whether filled with chicken-scratch sketches or gilded illuminations, these diaries have become objets d’art that expand our understanding of the uniquely compelling experiences of their creators—from anonymous writers to luminaries like LeConte and Muir, and from Beat poets to 12-year-old girls. Beyond Words is a fascinating and intimate collection that will inspire you to pull out pen and paper to capture the fleeting images and experiences of your own life.
Celebrating Mexico
Edited by Charles Faulhaber, 2010
A generously illustrated bilingual catalogue, jointly published by The Stanford University Libraries and The Bancroft Library, commemorates the 200th anniversary of Mexico's independence from Spain and the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. It accompanies the concurrent "Celebrating Mexico" exhibits held at both institutions. In addition to three scholarly essays and a complete checklist of each library's exhibition, 86 full-color images drawn from the collections of both institutions illustrate aspects of Mexican Independence and significant events of the Revolution.
Bancroft Anniversary Poster
By David Lance Goines, 2009
This limited edition poster by renowned Berkeley artist David Lance Goines celebrates the 100th anniversary of The Bancroft Library at Berkeley and the 150th anniversary of its foundation.
Songs of California: The U.C. Berkeley Tradition
Compiled by the Cal Song Book Committee, 2007
The 1890s saw the beginning of the creation of Cal’s college songs, and that tradition continued strongly through the 1930s. Cal songs were played by the Cal Band and sung by all the living groups, spirit groups, and the Glee Club—not only at athletic events but also at all University occasions. In 1944, these representations of school spirit were compiled into a portable song book, Songs of California, from which students could learn them. The turbulent 1960s, however, took their toll on this musical tradition, and fewer and fewer students and alumni actually knew, sang, or played these wonderful songs. This new Songs of California is intended, as was its 1944 predecessor, to preserve Cal’s rich musical heritage and revitalize the singing and playing of these songs. It includes the selections of the earlier version, as well as a number of new ones written since the 1944 publication. The musical score, along with background history, is provided for each song.
Exploring The Bancroft Library
Co-edited by Charles Faulhaber and Stephen Vincent, 2006
Out of Print
In this centennial guide, readers are introduced to the day-to-day life of an institution devoted to the collection, preservation, and study of original documents. From an in-depth look at the way material is acquired and conserved to chapters by individual curators on the history and highlights of the collections entrusted to their care, this book celebrates Bancroft's one hundred years on the Berkeley campus.
Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815-1848
By Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz, 2006
From the editors of the highly influential Lands of Promise and Despair, here are thirteen women’s firsthand accounts from the time California was part of Spain and Mexico. Having lived through the Gold Rush and seen their country change so drastically, these women understood the need to tell the full story of the people and the places that were their California. Some of their words are translated here into English for the first time.
Un Manuscrito Inédito de Poesías de José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi
By Nancy Vogeley, 2004
Nancy Vogeley examines the emergence of the novel in Mexico at the conclusion of Spain's 300 years of colonial rule. Acknowledged as Spanish America's first novelist, José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi introduced the genre into Mexico during its war of independence. His 1816 novel, El Periquillo Sarniento, became the symbol of new nationhood, and his commentary on social issues contributed to the revolutionary dialogue.
Drawn West: Honeyman Collection of Western Americana
By Jack von Euw and Genoa Shepley, 2004
Out of Print
The Honeyman Collection could be described formally as a collection of more than 2,300 items that focus on the visual interpretation of California and the West from 1790 through the early 1930s. During the days of exploration and settlement, the region was full of adventure, danger and wonders—and before there were cameras, artists depicted all of it.
Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly
By Susan Snyder, 2003
Once arguably the most powerful and terrifying animal in the California landscape, the grizzly now lives in the imagination, a disembodied symbol of the romantic West. More than 150 images from The Bancroft Library's collections—newspaper illustrations, paintings, photo albums, sheet music, settler's diaries, fruit crate labels, and more—accompany the bear stories of Indians, explorers, vaqueros, forty-niners, and naturalists. The result is a uniquely compelling natural history, a grand book worthy of its subject.
Esteban José Martínez: His Voyage in 1779 to Supply Alta California
Edited by Vivian C. Fisher, 2002
The 1779 diary of Esteban José Martínez details his voyages on the frigate Santiago, including visits to "the establishments of San Francisco, Monterey, and San Diego." The text is transcribed in the original Spanish language and translated into English.
Guide to the Manuscripts Concerning Baja California in the Collections of The Bancroft Library
Edited by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz, 2002
This guide contains more than 5,000 entries for resources in The Bancroft Library relating to the history of Baja California. Important resources on maritime history, mission history, demographic history, and trans-border relationships are identified in the Spanish-language publication.
Silicon Raj: Making a Difference to America's Future
Photos by Rick Rocamora, 2001
Silicon Raj is a photo-documentary work to honor the contributions of Indians in America, in business, the arts, publishing, medicine, academia, and many other fields.
Catalogue II of the Regional Oral History Office
Edited by Suzanne B. Riess, 1998
Continuing from Catalogue I, Catalogue II covers the interviews completed from 1980 to 1998, capturing the accounts of both individuals and entire communities. These oral histories give rich insight to the generation of winegrowers who re-created the industry after Prohibition, the lawyers and judges who made the California Supreme Court arguably the most influential state tribunal in the country, the artists and musicians who have enriched our lives, the philanthropists who have given of their time and money to make the Bay Area a better place to live, and the businesspeople who have created one of the most dynamic regional economies in the United States.
Mark Twain at Large: Exhibition Catalog
By Lin Salamo, Harriet Elinor Smith, and Robert Pack Browning, 1998
Out of Print
This award-winning catalogue documents a major exhibition at The Bancroft Library drawn from the Mark Twain Papers. An excerpt is available as a Bancroft web exhibition.
The Gold and Silver of Spanish America, c. 1572-1648
By Engel Sluiter, 1998
Through an extensive search of archival resources in Spain and Spanish America, the author has compiled a wealth of quantitative data on the quantity and allocations of gold and silver in Spanish America. The information is presented in tabular form with brief introductions before each section, showing bullion declared for taxation in colonial royal treasuries, remittances to Spain, and expenditures for defense of empire. This synthesis of data is based upon materials found in the Engel Sluiter Historical Documents Collection at The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Utah Pioneer Merchant: The Memoirs of Samuel H. Auerbach
Edited by Judith Robinson, 1998
Samuel H. Auerbach was a German Jewish immigrant who became a financial success and pillar of the community in Salt Lake City, Utah. The original memoir forms part of the Samuel H. Auerbach Papers in The Bancroft Library.
The Weber Era in Stockton History
By George P. Hammond, 1989
A history of Bavarian-born Charles Weber’s arrival in California in 1841, his pioneering years in California, his founding of Stockton, establishment of a 48,000 acre rancho in the Central Valley, and his long and successful marriage to Helen Murphy, whose father had immigrated to California in 1844.
Contemporary Danish Book Art: Exhibition Catalog
By Poul Steen Larsen, 1988
This exhibition catalog, with illustrations in color and in black and white, accompanied a 1988 display of Danish books that traveled throughout the United States. The works represented in this publication demonstrate that the art of book-making is very much alive in modern Denmark.
A Check-list of Publications of H. H. Bancroft and Company, 1857 to 1870
By Henry R. Wagner and Eleanor Bancroft with a preface by Ruth Frey Axe, 1987
This checklist includes a wide variety of imprints produced by the firm of H. H. Bancroft and Company, the corporate title used during the collaborative period of Hubert Howe Bancroft and his brother Albert Bancroft.
Reminiscences
By George P. Hammond, 1986
George P. Hammond served as Director of The Bancroft Library from 1946 to 1965. His reminiscences trace family life from early years in North Dakota, to which the Hammond family had immigrated from Denmark, to Hammond's emeritus years at Bancroft till 1985.
Guide to The Book Artifacts Collection
By Flora Elizabeth Reynolds, 1985
The Book Artifacts Collection (BART) at The Bancroft Library contains materials relating to the development of writing, the history of printing, and the various book arts. This illustrated guide offers information for the uninitiated and the expert and includes a detailed subject and name index.
A Guide to the Life and Works of Frederick J. Teggart
By Grace Dangberg, 1983
In 1930 Frederick J. Teggart, a humanist, delivered a Phi Beta Kappa oration at Berkeley before the University of California chapter. He concluded with these words: "The next thirty years will determine whether, as humanists, we are to take our place as the true representatives of the ideal that the affairs of men should be directed not by opinion, ignorance, and self-seeking, but by the highest exercise of human intelligence." In the fifty years since these words were spoken, natural and physical scientists have made significant advances; yet we still live in a culture, a society, a civilization that we do not understand. Such understanding must come about, as Teggart emphasized repeatedly, from studying the records of man's experience in answer to the question: How has man everywhere come to be as he is?
The Writing of My Uncle Dudley
By Wright Morris, 1982
Wright Morris, noted author of numerous works including a novel, My Uncle Dudley (1942), delivered this talk at the opening of the exhibition, "First Books by Notable Authors," at The Bancroft Library, February 21, 1982. The Bancroft Library houses many examples of his printed and manuscript materials.
Les Jeunes: An Account of Some Fin de Siècle San Francisco Authors and Artists
By Lawrence Dinnean, 1980
This pamphlet details the origins and development of a group of avant-garde San Francisco writers and artists at the end of the nineteenth century. The group adopted the name "Les Jeunes," a phrase first coined in a New York Times review of Lark, a magazinelet first published by the group in 1895. The pamphlet was issued to accompany an exhibition at The Bancroft Library, Feb. 25-May 16, 1980.
Catalogue of the Regional Oral History Office
Edited by Suzanne B. Riess and Willa K. Baum, 1979
Since the 1950s, the Regional Oral History Office (now the Oral History Center) has been interviewing leading figures and well-placed witnesses to major events and trends in the history of Northern California, the West, and the nation. This catalogue, covering work completed from 1954 to 1979, reflects the strong role of the Berkeley campus in this tremendous undertaking: the subject fields and persons for interviewing are recommended by many sources within the University and community-wide, and approved by the faculty. These oral histories are created as primary resources for research to be preserved for all users, present and future.
The Plate of Brass Reexamined: A Supplement
By The Bancroft Library, 1979
This pamphlet summarizes further testing on the Plate of Brass, once thought to have been left by Sir Francis Drake on the California coast in 1579, which was conducted under the auspices of The Bancroft Library in 1979.
The Plate of Brass Reexamined
By The Bancroft Library, 1977
In 1977, The Bancroft Library arranged for a new series of scientific tests of the Plate of Brass, once thought to have been left by Sir Francis Drake on the California coast in 1579. The results of the tests indicated that the brass was almost certainly of twentieth-century manufacture, thus suggesting that the Plate of Brass is a forgery. This report summarizes the original testing of the 1930s and the new testing of the 1970s.
Cow Hollow: Early Days of a San Francisco Neighborhood from 1776
By John L. Levinsohn, 1976
This San Francisco neighborhood, once known as Spring Valley, then Golden Gate Valley, and now Cow Hollow is a residential section of the city that dates back to the earliest Spanish settlements. This narrative discusses those beginnings, including the landowners and shifts in land use.
Earth Poetry
By William Everson, 1971
This portfolio contains the first separate edition of the essay "Earth Poetry." The text originally appeared in the Sierra Club Bulletin, July 1970, and was published in a 1980 collection of essays titled Earth Poetry: Selected Essays & Interviews.
Frank Norris Petitions the President and Faculty of the University of California
Introduction by Franklin Walker Dickerson, 1970
This facsimile publication was issued on the occasion of the centennial of the birth of Frank Norris. The popular author attended Berkeley 1890-1894, leaving without a degree for a fifth year of study at Harvard University. The petition reproduced herein was prepared by Norris during the first semester of his sophomore year and requested permission to select his own college courses in order to concentrate on becoming a writer of fiction.
Poetry of the Golden Age
By Antonio Rodríguez-Moñino, 1968
Antonio Rodríguez-Moñino presents the evidence used to sustain a critical reconstruction of Spanish poetry in the Golden Age. The discourse was read before the Modern Languages Association in New York, 1963.
Woman of California: Susanna Bryant Dakin
By W. W. Robinson, 1968
In the first of an annual lecture series established by Mr. and Mrs. Jake Zeitlin in memory of Susanna Bryant Dakin, W. W. Robinson offers a fascinating portrait of a woman with many accomplishments, including invaluable service to The Bancroft Library as a Council member, editor and author, philanthropist, and tireless advocate.
The Padre on Horseback: A Sketch of Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J., Apostle to the Pimas
By Herbert Eugene Bolton, 1963, reissued 1976
Father Kino is an important although under-appreciated pioneer of the American Southwest and Pacific Coast. Kino is described here as a "missionary, rancher, explorer, and geographer."
The Changing Responsibilities of a U.S. Senator: An Address
By William Fife Knowland, 1959
United States Senator William F. Knowland delivered the address at the twelfth annual meeting of the Friends of the Bancroft Library on May 3, 1959. He discussed the evolution of duties for a U.S. Senator and offered observations on the lineage of U.S. senators from the State of California.
Landscapes and Bookscapes of California
By Lawrence Clark Powell, 1958
Noted author and librarian Lawrence Clark Powell offered this talk as the 11th annual address delivered before the Friends of The Bancroft Library on May 4, 1958. Powell offers a thoughtful essay that relates the physical landscape of California to the literary contributions offered by some of its most notable authors.
The California Background, Spanish or American?
By John D. Hicks, 1957
Delivered as the 10th annual address before the Friends of the Bancroft Library on May 5, 1957, this essay explores the ramifications for a state such as California, with roots in Spanish culture, and the traditions of many other nationalities. In that sense, concludes the author, "California today is, as [Frederick Jackson] Turner once said of the whole West, the most American part of America."
The Bancroft Library: Whence-What-Whither
By Carl Irving Wheat, 1955
An address delivered on May 22, 1955, before The Friends of The Bancroft Library in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of its acquisition by The University of California by Carl, a lawyer, former Chairman of the Council of the Friends of The Bancroft Library and an author on many phases of the American West, including cartography, provides a historical perspective on the first half century of The Bancroft Library.
Reproduction of a Watercolor of a Dance in Peru
By Gunner William H. Meyers of the warship Cyane
William H. Meyers served aboard the U.S. Sloop of War Cyane. His papers include an illustrated journal (July-Sept. 1842) recorded while in Chile and Peru; two letters, 1843 and 1844, describing further voyages to Hawaii, California, and Mexico on the Cyane; and six watercolors, including a self-portrait. This reproduction depicts a dance in Peru.
Reproduction of a Watercolor of the American Capture of Monterey, 1842
By Gunner William H. Meyers of the warship Cyane
William H. Meyers served aboard the U.S. Sloop of War Cyane. His papers include an illustrated journal (July-Sept. 1842) recorded while in Chile and Peru; two letters, 1843 and 1844, describing further voyages to Hawaii, California, and Mexico on the Cyane; and six watercolors, including a self-portrait. This reproduction depicts the "Taking of Monterey, Oct 20th, 1842, by the Frigate United States Sloop of War Cyane in West California.”
Keepsakes
Keepsake 66
A Family in Transition: The Letters Between Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and Francisca Benicia Carrillo de Vallejo, 1839-1888
By Rose Marie Beebe and Robert Senkewicz
The experiences of Hispanics who were living in California when it was annexed by the United States is a crucial element in our state's past. These experiences were a major concern of Hubert Howe Bancroft, who devoted five volumes of his History of California to the Spanish and Mexican eras.
Keepsake 65
Writing Themselves into History: Emily and Matilda Bancroft in Journals and Letters
Kim Bancroft’s book is based on the writings of the wives of Hubert Howe Bancroft.
Keepsake 64
Of exceptional importance and interest: Papyri Curated by Affiliates of the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri.
Edited by Emily Cole, Andrew Hogan and Todd Hickey, this beautiful book celebrates the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri's first twenty years with a series of short essays by alumni scholars on their favorite papyri.
Keepsake 63
Mark Twain's Civil War
By Mark Twain, and edited and with an Introduction by Benjamin Griffin, 2019
From the Mark Twain Project comes a freshly informed look at Twain's controversial Civil War story "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed." Aided by Twain's notes and correspondence—transcribed and published here for the first time—Benjamin Griffin of UC Berkeley's Mark Twain Project offers a new and cogent analysis, particularly of Clemens’\'s multiple revisions of his own war experience.
Keepsake 62
Colors of California Agriculture
By Peter Goin and Paul Starrs, 2018
This volume by Peter Goin and Paul Starrs pairs materials from the Peter Goin and Paul F. Starrs California Agriculture Archive and the Peter Goin Digital Photograph Archive with items from other Bancroft Library historical agriculture archives.
Keepsake 61
The Clampers and Their Hoax(es)
By James M. Spitze, Dr. Robert J. Chandler, Edward Von der Porten, Stephen Zovickian, 2018
This account is a fresh look at the complicated story of the Drake Plate, which has been merrily and meticulously reconstructed by Bancroft Friends Council member Robert Chandler along with his colleagues James Spitze, Stephen Zovickian, and the late Edward Von der Porten.
Keepsake 60
The Life Books of Doris Barr Stanislawski: The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
By Doris Barr Stanislawski and edited, with introductions, by Theresa Salazar and Chris McDonald, 2017
Selected by Bancroft specialists Theresa Salazar and Chris McDonald from the illustrated PPIE scrapbooks of Doris Barr, the pages of this sumptuous facsimile album present the world's fair through the eyes and in the words of this perceptive fourteen-year- old girl from Stockton. She lived on the fair grounds for much of the Exposition and becomes our guide to the events she witnessed and commemorated in her scrapbooks.
Keepsake 59
America's Wine: The Legacy of Prohibition
Directed and produced by: Carla De Luca Worfolk, 2012
Bancroft Keepsakes have traditionally been print publications based on books or manuscripts in Bancroft's collections. This is the first one based on the oral histories in the Bancroft Center for Oral History. Since 1967 the oral history program has been documenting the history of the California wine industry with more than eighty oral histories to date of its significant figures. America's Wine both builds on and contributes to that series, since the interviews and outtakes from Carla Worfolk's project have now been added to Bancroft's collections.
Keepsake 58
Literary Industries: Chasing a Vanishing West
By Hubert Howe Bancroft and edited by Kim Bancroft, 2013
A bookseller in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, Hubert Howe Bancroft (1832-1918) rose to become the man who would define the early history of California and the West. Creating what he called a "history factory," he assembled a vast library of over sixty thousand books, maps, letters, and documents; hired scribes to copy material in private hands; employed interviewers to capture the memories of early Spanish and Mexican settlers; and published multiple volumes sold throughout the country by his subscription agents. In 1890 he published an eight-hundred-page autobiography, aptly entitled Literary Industries.
Literary Industries sparkles with the exuberance of nineteenth-century California and introduces us to a man of great complexity and wit. Edited for the modern reader yet relating the history of the West as it was taking place—and as it was being recorded—Kim Bancroft's edition of Literary Industries is a joy to read.
Keepsake 57
By Sail for San Francisco
By David W. Pettus, 2012
By Sail for San Francisco evokes the brief and colorful era of the clipper ships that brought thousands of hopeful individuals to California during the Gold Rush, when sailing around the Horn was the fastest way to the Pacific Coast from the eastern United States. In this choice little volume, Friends Council member David Wingate Pettus introduces readers to the clipper ship card, a rare advertising genre that peaked in the 1850s and soon disappeared when sailing vessels were eclipsed by steam ships and locomotives. The Bancroft Library has the largest collection of these beautiful little treasures—some 140 of them—in the West. Facsimiles of fifteen of Bancroft's clipper cards are included with the volume.
Keepsake 56
Beyond Words: 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries
By Susan Snyder, 2011
Beyond Words is a collection of excerpts from fifty illustrated diaries spanning two hundred years of adventure and contemplation. From the records of eighteenth-century Spanish explorer Pedro Font to those of a young David Brower first encountering the wilderness, these unfolding stories reveal as much about the times in which they were written as they do the diarists’ particular inner worlds. Whether filled with chicken-scratch sketches or gilded illuminations, these diaries have become objets d’art that expand our understanding of the uniquely compelling experiences of their creators—from anonymous writers to luminaries like LeConte and Muir, and from Beat poets to twelve-year-old girls. Beyond Words is a fascinating and intimate collection that will inspire you to pull out pen and paper to capture the fleeting images and experiences of your own life.
Keepsake 55
A Beaux-Arts Education: The Architectural Education of Arthur Brown, Jr. at the École des Beaux-Arts Paris, France 1897-1903
Edited by Hans Baldauf, 2011
Arthur Brown, Jr. was San Francisco's most successful architect in the first half of the twentieth century. Educated at UC Berkeley under the tutelage of Bernard Maybeck and then at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Brown, along with his partner John Bakewell, gave the Bay Area many of the built landmarks that continue to define the region. In this wonderfully illustrated portfolio we can trace Brown’s education at the École, see through the example of one talented student its program and methodology, and trace the impact of this education on his career.
Keepsake 54
California as an Island: Maps from the Library
Edited by Glen McLaughlin, 2009
This reproduction of six early maps of California, selected and with an introduction and notes by Glen McLaughlin, Bancroft Friend and the world’s leading expert on the subject, shows how European cartographers struggled to resolve conflicting evidence about California's geography from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 18th.
Keepsake 53
The Chinese Experience in California: Through Western Eyes, 1878-1902
By The Friends of The Bancroft Library, 2008
This portfolio of six prints, watercolors, and oil paintings, selected and with an introduction and notes by Theresa Salazar, Curator of the Bancroft Collection of Western Americana, shows how western artists depicted the Chinese in California at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. This Keepsake presents a very small selection from The Bancroft Library’s holdings of visual representations of the lives and livelihoods of Chinese immigrants and their descendants in California.
Keepsake 52
Personal Memoranda: Samuel Hopkins Willey: The Journal of His Voyage to California, 1848-1849
By Samuel Hopkins Willey and edited by James M. Spitze, 2007
Samuel Hopkins Willey was a leading force in the founding of California’s educational structure, helping to establish various institutions that include today's University of California. For over a century, The Bancroft Library has possessed both the on-the-spot diary of his voyage on the steamer California and a much longer recollection (written in 1877) of his entire trip to California—first on the steamer Fulton, then via canoe and mule-back across the Isthmus of Panama, and then via the steamer California up the coast to Monterey. Published for the first time, these two fascinating documents are interspersed with numerous period illustrations from The Bancroft Library’s vast collections. This Keepsake is a long overdue tribute to Cal's long-forgotten founder.
Keepsake 51
Past Tents: The Way We Camped
By Susan Snyder, 2006
From the award-winning author of Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly comes this lighter look at Americans’ infatuation with the great outdoors. Mining once again the vast archives at The Bancroft Library, Susan Snyder has mapped out this cheeky yet accurate history of camping in the West. Full of photographs and descriptions of family outings in the first years of the automobile, of campgrounds and campfires against the familiar backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, of the remarkable gear and "helpful" hints that accompanied outings to our newly minted state and national parks and forests, this Keepsake is a humorous romp through one of our favorite pastimes.
Keepsake 50
Exploring The Bancroft Library
Co-edited by Charles Faulhaber and Stephen Vincent, 2006
In this centennial guide, readers are introduced to the day-to-day life of an institution devoted to the collection, preservation, and study of original documents. From an in-depth look at the way material is acquired and conserved to chapters by individual curators on the history and highlights of the collections entrusted to their care, this Keepsake celebrates Bancroft's one hundred years on the Berkeley campus.
Keepsake 49
A Honeyman Portfolio: Images of Early California
By the Friends of The Bancroft Library, 2005
The impressive array of 2,371 items comprising the Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western Art is a treasury of the works of artist-adventurers, surveyors, scientists, sailors, soldiers, and seekers of fortune and fame. The Honeyman Collection anchors The Bancroft Library’s pictorial holdings, augmenting and enhancing the library’s core collections of primary manuscript and printed sources of Western and Latin Americana. Based on the broad themes of Drawn West—Inhabitants and Travelers, The Land Beheld, By Land By Sea, Incident and Accident, Enterprise, and Wonder and Curiosity—the selection of six images for this Keepsake is not meant to be representative of the entire collection. They are a personal choice, based in part on their uniqueness to the collection.
Keepsake 48
Bear in Mind: The California Grizzly
By Susan Snyder, 2003
Once arguably the most powerful and terrifying animal in the California landscape, the grizzly now lives in the imagination, a disembodied symbol of the romantic West. More than 150 images from The Bancroft Library's collections—newspaper illustrations, paintings, photo albums, sheet music, settlers' diaries, fruit crate labels, and more—accompany the bear stories of Indians, explorers, vaqueros, forty-niners, and naturalists. The result is a uniquely compelling natural history, a grand book worthy of its subject.
Keepsake 47
Mark Twain, Press Critic
By Mark Twain with an introduction by Thomas C. Leonard, 2003
In two previously unpublished essays, "Interviewing the Interviewer" and "The American Press," Twain illuminates his lifelong worry over the American press.
Keepsake 46
Songs of the Cowboys
Edited by Connie Loarie, 2001
This new edition of N. Howard "Jack" Thorp's Songs of the Cowboys, first published in 1908, includes a CD-ROM with a musical interpretation of selected songs by George Smith. This volume also contains a glossary of cowboy terms that first appeared in a 1921 edition.
Keepsake 45
Uncertain Country
Edited by Stephen Vincent, 2000
This selection of letters—spanning 1851-1854 and culled from more than 200 original documents in the Wingate Family Papers—illuminates the personal experiences of a father and a New Hampshire family separated during the California Gold Rush. Filled with extraordinary detail, these letters offer a dramatic and telling story of an epic period in American history.
Keepsake 44
The Recipe Book of Lillie Hitchcock Coit
Introduction by Carol Hart Field; edited by John C. Craig and transcribed by Barbara Hoddy, 1998
The original volume is a bound notebook of lined paper with 46 unnumbered leaves. It serves as an important artifact of a leading figure in San Francisco society during the 1870s and 1880s. To assist the reader, section headings and a table of contents have been added, as well as an index. The recipes collected by Mrs. Coit reflect the influence of French, Spanish, Mexican, and English traditions in cookery of the period.
Keepsake 43
The Poet's Eye: A Tribute to Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books
Edited by Richard Ogar, 1997
This volume includes works and poetry from several authors, including Hettie Jones, Joanne Kyger, Andrew Hoyem, Michael McClure, S. A. Griffin, David Meltzer, Jack Micheline, Tom Clark, Ron Loewinsohn, Michael Palmer, Jack Foley, and Ariel and Ianthe Brautigan. Publication of this tribute coincided with a symposium, "Ferlinghetti, City Lights, and the Beats in San Francisco: From the Margins to the Mainstream," and an exhibition at The Bancroft Library in 1996.
Keepsake 42
Frontier Reminiscences of Eveline Brooks Auerbach
Edited and with an introduction by Annegret S. Ogden, 1994
The publication of these memoirs, supported by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation, offers the reader an exemplary sample of nineteenth-century American Life in the frontier West. With chapter headings such as "Pony Express," "Our Life Among the Mormons," and "Salt Lake City, 1877," Auerbach paints an intimate portrait of life.
Keepsake 41
Harriet Martineau and America: Selected Letters from the Richard S. Speck Collection
Edited and with an introduction by R. A. Burchell, 1995
This collection of letters written by Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) gives considerable insight to the inner mind of this remarkable woman and prolific writer. Her work most frequently appeared in newspapers, where she took it upon herself to explain complex social and political issues to those she saw as less sophisticated than herself. Her intellectual mind ranged freely from the theoretical to the practical, and she wrote on subjects as diverse as the philosophy of Auguste Comte and the keeping of cows.
Keepsake 40
The Diary of Captain Luis Antonio Arguello, 1821: The Last Spanish Expedition in California
Translated by Vivian C. Fisher with an introduction by Arthur Quinn, 1992
This brief but informative diary chronicles the last expedition conducted under Spanish rule in California. Captain Arguello's diary, published here in translation, dates from October 17 to November 17, 1821.
Keepsake 39
The Legacy of James D. Hart at The Bancroft Library
Edited by Anthony S. Bliss, 1991
This illustrated volume celebrates an exhibit prepared to mark the accomplishments and contributions of James D. Hart, former Director of The Bancroft Library. The catalog offers a brief selection of acquisitions from 1970 through 1990 and demonstrates the scope and quality of scholarly research materials in the collection.
Keepsake 38
A Yosemite Camping Trip, 1889
By Joseph N. LeConte, 1990
Joseph N. LeConte wrote this journal of a trip to Yosemite in 1889 as a nineteen-year-old in the company of his father, Joseph LeConte, Professor of Geology and Natural History at Berkeley. The elder LeConte was 66 years old at the time of this trip and had relocated from South Carolina in 1869 to join the University in the year of its founding. Both men enjoyed mountain climbing and joined the Sierra Club as charter members. The younger LeConte served as president and honorary leader of the Sierra Club from 1931 until his death in 1950. The account of this trip is illustrated by photographs taken with an early Kodak camera.
Keepsake 37
Kipling in California
Edited by Thomas Pinney, 1989
On May 28, 1899, the noted author Rudyard Kipling arrived in San Francisco aboard the Pacific Mail Company steamship SS City of Peking. At this time Kipling was a newspaper editor, not yet twenty-four years old, and largely unknown in international circles. This volume publishes a series of letters Kipling composed during his eighteen days in San Francisco, and a group of three short stories he wrote about California.
Keepsake 36
Three Memoirs of Mexican California
By Carlos N. Hijar, Eulalia Pérez, and Augustin Escobar, and translated by Vivian C. Fisher, 1988
These three memoirs were created in 1877 by Hubert Howe Bancroft and Thomas Savage, one of his chief assistants. Each memoir is presented in facsimile (in the original Spanish handwriting) and with an English translation. The translations seek to retain the style of the original speaker.
Keepsake 35
Through the Black Curtain
By Maxine Hong Kingston, 1987
The author presents a series of annotated excerpts from several of her popular writings on the Chinese-American experience in the United States. The volume includes passages from The Woman Warrior (1976), China Men (1980), and Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book (1987).
Keepsake 34
Nineteenth-Century Illustrators of California Sights and Scenes
By Lawrence Dinnean, 1986
The author divides nineteenth-century illustrations of California into three categories: the output of official artists and draftsmen who accompanied scientific and exploring expeditions; the personal sketches and drawings of travelers and settlers; and the professional work of journal and print illustrators. The publication includes biographical sketches of prominent California illustrators and reproductions of notable works.
Keepsake 33
The Grangerford-Shepherdson Feud
By Mark Twain, 1985
This reproduction of the Century Magazine publication of Mark Twain's writing on the Grangerford-Shepherdson feud (essentially chapters 17 and 18 of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), published in December 1884, is joined by his writings on the Darnell v. Watson feud. The editors place Mark Twain's writings in their historical context to illuminate the use of fact in his fictional writings.
Keepsake 32
The Year of the Young Rebels Revisited
By Stephen Spender, 1984
This publication celebrates The Bancroft Library's collection of modern literary manuscripts and presents a new text by Sir Stephen Spender. It illuminates his previous writings on the student uprisings of the 1960s, a movement that had its home on the Berkeley campus.
Keepsake 31
The Show of Science
By Robin E. Rider, 1983
Rare and unique scholarly research materials, a strength of The Bancroft Library, serve as the source for this work. Four areas of scientific interest are explored: Demonstration Experiments, Ceremonies and Celebrations, Wonderful Machines, and Displays of Nature. Illustrations from historical works accompany the text.
Keepsake 30
The Story of a Story & Three Stories
By Jessamyn West, 1982
A total of four stories are compiled in this work. "The Story of a Story" was first published in Pacific Spectator (summer 1949); "Horace Chooney, M.D.," appeared in Mademoiselle (February 1947) and subsequently in West's Love, Death, and the Ladies Drill Team (1955). "A Man like a Mule" and "Babes in the Woods" are believed to be unpublished prior to their appearance in this volume.
Keepsake 29
Wapping Alice
By Mark Twain, 1981
"Wapping Alice," a short story by Mark Twain, is printed here for the first time. This Keepsake also contains another of his short stories, "The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm," as well as three letters written to his wife, Olivia L. Clemens, and his autobiographical dictation of April 10, 1907.
Keepsake 28
Nine Classic California Photographers
Edited by William Hively, 1980
This volume includes the work of Robert H. Vance, Carleton Emmons Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, Adam Clark Vroman, Arnold Genthe, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, and Ansel Adams. The evolution of photography in California parallels the development of the state within the cultural and historical panorama of the United States. Images of California, including its landscapes, people, and structures, illuminate the factual and mythical place of this region in the American experience.
Keepsake 27
The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake
By Helen Wallis, 1979
This publication honors the 400th anniversary of the voyage of Sir Francis Drake and his visit to Nova Albion in 1579.
Keepsake 26
Telling Stories
By Joan Didion, 1978
Joan Didion, a UC Berkeley graduate, gathers three short stories she wrote in 1964 and introduces these works with personal insights concerning the creative process of writing. Didion muses that the genesis for these works lay in the fact that her first novel had been published recently. She was "suffering a fear common among people who have just written a first novel: the fear of never writing another."
Keepsake 25
The Actor from Point Arena
By Frederick G. Ross and edited by Travis Bogard, 1977
Frederick G. Ross (1858-1942) was an actor from Point Arena, California. Although not a featured performer, Ross worked with such notable actors as James O'Neil, Thomas W. Keene, and Edwin Booth. His memoirs and letters recount the world of the stage, and his passages on San Francisco theaters of 1878-1881 are rich in detail.
Keepsake 24
Una and Robin
By Mabel Dodge Luhan and edited by Mark Schorer, 1976
The author Mabel Dodge Luhan enjoyed a close friendship with Una and Robinson Jeffers. In this previously unpublished tribute to her friends, Luhan offers an intimate portrait written with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Jefferses.
Keepsake 23
California Indian Characteristics
By Stephen Powers with a preface by N. Scott Momaday, 1975
"California Indian Characteristics" was first published in Overland Monthly in April 1875. A second Powers essay, "Centennial Mission to the Indians of Western Nevada and California," is also reprinted here with a brief essay by Robert F. Heizer, "Stephen Powers as Anthropologist," to offer an interesting and informative perspective on nineteenth-century attitudes toward American Indians.
Keepsake 22
Recollections of Old Times in California
By William Thomes and edited by George R. Stewart, 1974
William Henry Thomes was one of many subjects whose life's memories were transcribed for posterity by Hubert Howe Bancroft and his staff of interviewers. Thomes, a successful businessman, author, and entrepreneur, made several visits to California throughout the mid- to late 19th century.
Keepsake 21
Some Treasures of The Bancroft Library
Edited by J. R. K. Kantor, 1973
Prepared in honor of the move of The Bancroft Library to its present quarters, this volume highlights a selection of rare and unique items in such areas as California and the West, Early Printing, History of Science, Illuminated Manuscripts, Literary Manuscripts and Publications, The Mark Twain Papers, Mexico and Central America, The University of California, and Pictorial Collections.
Keepsake 20
The Great Landslide Case
By Mark Twain and edited by Frederick Anderson and Edgar M. Branch, 1972
This volume reproduces three versions of a popular story by the noted American humorist and author, Mark Twain. The Mark Twain Papers & Project, located in The Bancroft Library, houses the largest single collection of original documents by and about Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain). The three variant stories first appeared in print in 1863, 1870, and 1872. This publication provides the opportunity to read and study the writings and re-writings of a great American author and speaker, one who carefully refined and crafted his own words and those of his characters.
Keepsake 19
A Sailor's Sketch of the Sacramento Valley in 1842
By John Yates with an introduction by Ferol Egan, 1971
With essays entitled "The Bidwell Map of 1844 of the Sacramento Valley" and "Sketch of the Sacramento Valley," this publication highlights two important documents on the mid-19th century history of the Sacramento region.
Keepsake 18
A Visit to California in 1841
An interview with Joseph B. Chiles, 1970
Joseph B. Chiles was a colorful California pioneer. He was an assiduous fiddle player, a lover of jokes and joking, a devoted hunter of grizzlies, and a notable pathfinder on the California Trail. His interview is one of the scores that Hubert Howe Bancroft collected through his agents while working on his history. It is obviously unfinished, broken off almost between sentences, but there is no indication of the reason. This Keepsake also contains an interview with one of Chiles's sons by a highly inexperienced interviewer who did not know how to spell Chiles.
Keepsake 17
The Life of George Henry Goddard
By Albert Shumate, 1969
An artist, architect, surveyor, and mapmaker, George Henry Goddard was a remarkable individual. He is best known for his numerous surveying expeditions in the Sierras and for authoring Britton and Rey’s Map of the State of California, the first map of California to be based on surveys. A reproduction of this map is included in the Keepsake.
Keepsake 16
A Kid on the Comstock
Edited by Dolores Waldorf Bryant, 1968
John Taylor Waldorf published his boyhood reminiscences of the Comstock in the San Francisco Bulletin, beginning on March 12, 1905. His final story appeared in 1924. These articles are reproduced here, with thoughtful commentary on the author and the Comstock area to guide the contemporary reader.
Keepsake 15
Valley of Salt, Memories of Wine: Journal of the Death Valley, 1849
By Louis Nusbaumer and edited by George Koenig, 1967
On their overland journey to the gold fields of California in 1849, Louis Nusbaumer and 94 others found themselves lost in a desert fastness which, because of their passage through it, would eventually be called Death Valley. Written in German script, Nusbaumer’s two pocket-sized notebooks are the only known daily record kept by a member of that ill-fated party.
Keepsake 14
Desert Rats
By Charles L. Camp, 1966
The term "Desert Rats" was "a proud one and not lightly bestowed. Genuine burro prospectors were self-sufficient, self-reliant men; uninhibited lovers of independence and solitude. These traits of character were accentuated in isolation. They had personal charm and usually a sardonic sense of humor." Charles L. Camp offers his remembrances of these unique Western figures in a Keepsake volume designed and printed by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy.
Keepsake 13
GPH: An Informal Record of George P. Hammond
By The Friends of The Bancroft Library, 1965
Prompted by the retirement of Director George P. Hammond, this volume contains a series of essays and reminiscences by several individuals with intimate knowledge of The Bancroft Library and its history. These writings illuminate Hammond's life and career and the evolution of The Bancroft Library.
Keepsake 12
A Journey to California, 1841
By John Bidwell with an introduction by Francis P. Farquhar, 1964
The original journal kept by Bidwell during the 1841 migration to California by wagon train was never found. The printed account later acquired by Hubert Howe Bancroft is, by Bidwell’s own statement, an abridgment. Both the facsimile of the printed version and its edited transcript are presented in this Keepsake.
Keepsake 11
Rose or Rose Thorn?
By Susanna Bryant Dakin, 1963
This Keepsake contains the biographies of three women who lived during the Spanish rule of the Californias—Doña Feliciana Arballo, Doña Eulalia Fages, and Doña Concepción Argüello.
Keepsake 10
Mexico: Ancient and Modern
Introduction by James D. Hart, 1962
This catalog organizes a selection of Bancroft's extensive Mexican holdings under such topical headings as Aboriginal Annals; The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico; Spanish Institutions and the New World; Founding of the Republic; War, Revolution, and Invasion in the Era of the Republic; Empire, Republic, and Dictatorship; and The Mexico of Don Silvestre Terrazas.
Keepsake 9
The Ralston-Fry Wedding
Edited by Francis P. Farquhar, 1961
This publication reproduces an account of a wedding and the wedding journey to Yosemite on May 20, 1858. The original text is found in the diary of Miss Sarah Haight (Mrs. Edward Tompkins).
Keepsake 8
American Images of Spanish California
By James D. Hart, 1960
First delivered in 1959 as the Charles Mills Gayley Lecture, sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English, this lecture offers a review of the literary images of California's transition from Spanish and Mexican domination to that of "American domination."
Keepsake 7
Stockton Boyhood
By Carl Ewald Grunsky and edited by Clotilde C. Taylor, 1959
These essays were written from 1925 to 1934 and document the life of Carl Ewald Grunsky, a graduate of the first class of Stockton High School in 1870. Grunsky later became a distinguished engineer; his career included service as the first City Engineer in San Francisco and as a member of the first Isthmian Canal Commission appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Keepsake 6
The Mariposa Indian War, 1850-1851: Diaries of Robert Eccleston
Edited by C. Gregory Crampton, 1957
This is the second published volume of the diaries of Robert Eccleston. The first appeared under the title Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail, 1849. Like many participants in the Gold Rush, Robert Eccleston kept an excellent record of the journey to California only to break it off on arrival, December 28, 1849. After ten months in California, however, he returned to his diary to record his experiences in the Southern Mines during the years 1850 and 1851, centering on a war provoked when the miners intruded upon Indian lands.
Keepsake 5
Ramblings in California: The Adventure of Henry Cerruti
Edited by Margaret Mollins and Virginia Thickens, 1954
At Hubert Howe Bancroft’s request, Henry Cerruti began his account on October 6, 1874. Originally he had intended to describe his adventures in the Sonoma valley, but as his travels took him to different parts of the state, these too were added. In his work, Cerruti faithfully recorded his conversations with the pioneers, omitting only those which he wrote up at greater length for Bancroft's use. For this Keepsake, several Spanish passages that Cerruti included in his manuscript have been translated into English, and because Cerruti wrote spontaneously with little thought of formal organization, the text has been paragraphed and divided into chapters. The original manuscript is held by The Bancroft Library.
Keepsake 4
The Opening of the California Trail
Edited by George R. Stewart, 1953
This Keepsake recounts the story of the Stevens Party from the reminiscences of Moses Schallenberger, as set down for Hubert Howe Bancroft circa 1885. The Stevens Party set out for the Pacific Coast in the spring of 1844 and opened the first wagon road to California. This intrepid group is also credited with the discovery of Donner Pass.
Keepsake 3
A Description of California in 1828
By José Bandini and translated by Doris Marion Wright, 1951
The original document consists of nineteen manuscript pages, written in the distinctive handwriting of José Bandini. It is undated, and unsigned except for the initials "J.B." The manuscript probably came to the University of California with the Cowan Collection in 1897, where it remained almost unnoticed among the treasures of The Bancroft Library. With this Keepsake, Bancroft is glad to bring this remarkable document to the attention of scholars. Both the original version and an English translation are provided.
Keepsake 2
Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail, 1849: Diary of Robert Eccleston
Edited by George P. Hammond and Edward H. Howes, 1950
Word of the California gold discoveries had reached the East during the summer of 1848, and the news was confirmed in President James K. Polk’s annual message to Congress in December of that year. At once, thousands of men seized the first opportunity to head west for the reputed easy riches. Robert Eccleston distinguished himself among them by keeping a painstaking record of the trip from Texas to California. His journal is especially interesting as a record of the opening of two sections of the great Southwestern Trail—the Lower Road from San Antonio to El Paso and the cut-off from the Burro Mountains in New Mexico to Tucson—as well as for its description of the entire nine-month journey to the Pacific Coast.
Keepsake 1
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848
Edited by George P. Hammond, 1949
This Keepsake, published in a convenient form with an explanatory accompaniment and map, is a boon to all California residents who have any degree of curiosity about the origins of their laws, their land titles, and many other aspects of their citizenship. This publication is the first to appear under the sponsorship of the Friends of The Bancroft Library.