Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush: A Documentary History, 1849-1880 Book

Consider this a guilty pleasure'more apocryphal than historical and more comic book than anything approaching serious writing. I pull this off the shelf whenever I need to spend fifteen minutes with a despicable character (other than my friend Daniel). The little vignettes cover the famous and infamous. Most are very funny (I guess, if you have a Sarah Vowell sense of humor, and I do). This contained my first exposure to Black Jack Ketchum and prompted me to make a pilgrimage to the spot where his head got lopped off and hit the ground. The hotel from the famous picture is still there, a crumbling ruin, but proud of its heritage (in a creepy sort of way). Most of the 'bunglers' may have been notorious in their day but come across as characters from homogenized 1950's Westerns. Great stories to read out loud to your cat. Beast really enjoys them!