Peder Sather was a scribe before he emigrated from Norway to New York in 1832. There he worked as a footman and a clerk at a lottery office before opening an exchange brokerage. During the gold rush he moved to San Francisco to help establish the banking house of Drexel, Sather & Church on Montgomery Street. Sather was a founder and a liberal benefactor of the University of California at Berkeley where he is memorialized by the Sather Gate and Sather Tower (The Campanile).

Karin Sveen, one of Norway’s most accomplished writers, pieces together a story yet untold—a beautifully crafted biography based on her dedicated search for scraps of information. The result gives readers a look at the life of a successful entrepreneur and a leading California patron who engaged in public education on all levels, supported Abraham Lincoln, and made efforts to give emancipated slaves housing, schooling, and work after The Civil War. His legacy, vivid persona, and the frontier city of his time are intertwined with interesting anecdotes of the lives of many famous people— General William T. Sherman, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, and above all, his close friend Anthony J. Drexel, legendary financier in Philadelphia and one of the founders of Wall Street.

Karin Sveen is a Norwegian poet, novelist, and essayist. She was awarded the Norsk språkpris (Norwegian Language Prize) in 2007.



Barbara J. Haveland has translated for many notable Scandinavian authors, including Peter Høeg, Linn Ullmann, and Jan Kjærstad.