xvi, [15]-526 pp. Frontis. photo port. & 5 wood-engraved plates. 8¾x5½, original sheep, rebacked with modern sheep, orginal spine labels laid on, marbled endpapers & edges. First Edition.

"Best biography of a violently eccentric Californian" - Howes. Terry (1823-1890) came to California from Texas in 1849, was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1855 and became Chief Justice in 1857, mortally wounded Senator David Broderick in a duel in 1859, fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, came back to California as a lawyer in 1869, married a client, struck U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field (occasioned by Field's determining the aforementioned client's documentation was false), and was gunned down by Field's bodyguard David Neagle. Cowan p.66; Howes W14.