PBA Galleries

13 monthly issues comprising: Volume I, Number 1 through Volume II, Number 5, Volume III, Numbers 1 and 2. Each issue 64 pages. (8vo) 22x14 cm (8¾x5½") period half calf and marbled boards, spine perished. 

The complete first volume, five of six issues of the second volume, and two issues from the third volume of this short-lived literary monthly magazine published in San Francisco, the most significant feature of which is that it contained the first publication of "The Shirley Letters" from the California mines, written by Clappe to her sister, 1851-2, as she accompanied her husband to Rich Bar on the Feather River, published here under the pseudonym Dame Shirley. According to J. Gregg Layne, they present "an entirely different picture of the conditions at the mines from that ordinarily found in books written by miners and travelers of that day. Being a cultured woman's contemporary report of experiences in the gold rush, they are unique...." The present bound volume contain letters 1 through 10 and 12 of the 23 letters in total. Bound without the original wrappers. Kurutz 133 (note); Zamorano 80 #69; Howes C427; Wheat, Books 39; Cowan p.837. Rare.