Disciplines Literary Studies & Poetry American Literature

The Literature of California, Volume 1 by Jack Hicks, James D. Houston, Maxine Hong Kingston, Al Young

The Literature of California, Volume 1 Native American Beginnings to 1945

by Jack Hicks (Editor), James D. Houston (Editor), Maxine Hong Kingston (Editor), Al Young (Editor)
December 2000
First Edition
Paperback
$34.95, £30.00
Courses
Modern Literature
Title Details

Rights: Available worldwide
Pages: 653
ISBN: 9780520222120
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 21 b/w photographs, 1 map

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About the Book About the Author Reviews Table of Contents Awards Related Books

About the Book

The Literature of California is a landmark publication—unmatched by any existing collection and distinguished by its breadth, variety of sources, and historical sweep. The editors have been refreshingly inclusive and imaginative in their selection: some of the writers are internationally known, others are anthologized here for the first time. The richness of material, ranging from Native American origin myths to Hollywood novels dissecting the American Dream; from the familiar voices of John Steinbeck, Jack London, and William Saroyan to the less-well-known narratives of Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Josephine Miles, and Jade Snow Wong—all of it captures the spirit and scope of the state itself.

This first volume of the comprehensive two-volume anthology is divided into four parts. The first includes stories, legends, and songs of the indigenous tribes. The second section comprises letters, diaries, reports, and travel narratives that trace a century of exploration, discovery, and conquest. Part III includes Mother Lode tales by Mark Twain and Bret Harte, the first signs of California poetry, the rise of narrative by California women, the nature writing of John Muir and Mary Austin, and some of the earliest prose from writers of Asian background, as well as the maturing fiction of Jack London and Frank Norris. Part IV traces the period between the World Wars, when California literature came fully into its own.

A lively introduction contextualizes each section, and concise biographical material is included for each writer. Volume Two, to be published in 2007, concentrates on the second half of the twentieth-century, during which California became one of the most active literary regions in the world. A colossal contribution to the culture of the state, The Literature of California broadens our sense of this region's richness, both past and present, offering new ways of perceiving history, community, and oneself.

About the Author

Jack Hicks teaches California literature and directs the Graduate Creative Program at the University of California, Davis. James D. Houston's seven books of fiction/nonfiction include Continental Drift (California, 1996) and The Last Paradise (1998), which won the American Book Award. Maxine Hong Kingston is the author of The Woman Warrior (1976), China Men (1980), and Tripmaster Monkey (1989). An early draft of her fourth novel, The Fifth Book of Peace, was destroyed in a fire; the restored version will be published in 2000-2001. Al Young's twenty books include African American literary anthologies, memoirs, collections of poetry, and the novels Sitting Pretty (1976) and Who Is Angelina? (California, 1996).

Reviews

"An utterly extraordinary collection, and I have nothing but admiration and highest praise for the selection of the material, its depth and arrangement. It is comprehensive, lively, done with great zest, imagination, and a sense of responsibility toward the state and its literary heritage."—Malcolm Margolin, publisher of Heyday Books

"This first volume is a big, generous, and inclusive collection that shows me a host of things that I hadn't read before."—Thom Gunn

"This long-awaited volume captures the vast panorama of thought, emotion, and eloquent musings inspired by the landscapes and crossroads culture of the Golden State. The energy and promise and adrenaline of the California dream are richly sampled here, along with its paradoxes and tragic shortcomings. This is a knock-out anthology: indispensable for anyone who cares about American literature and the place of California in the national imagination." —Michael Kowalewski, editor, Gold Rush: A Literary Exploration, and former president of the Western Literature Association

"This marvelous collection of literature creates a sense of time and place like no other in the world. California starts in native origin stories; the songs of many cultures and mighty landscapes rightly open this literary treasury. The literature of exploration, conquest, and separation is followed by the rise of romance, irony, adventure and, in the last section, a return to the stories of cultural diversity. Earthmaker, in the opening Maidu creation myth, said 'there will always be songs, and all of you will have them.' That sentiment has endured in The Literature of California." —Gerald Vizenor, University of California, Berkeley

"This first volume of The Literature of California is a brilliant and almost impossible achievement. For the first time, the amazing richness of California's literary heritage, from the intricate and beautiful stories of the first Natives to the hard-boiled fiction of Los Angeles, is illuminated here amply and unmistakably and, above all, respectfully. I am awed by these four editors' stunning labor, love for place and word, and finally, profound knowledge of their home region. Superlatives come quickly to mind--extraordinary, monumental, invaluable. I can't wait for volume two." —Louis Owens, University of New Mexico

"This anthology comes in the nick of time to re-open our minds to the radically enthusiastic, naively critical, poems, stories and tales that are giving shape to one of the most exciting new cultures on the globe. Volume One curves from the Maidu story that tells of 'Turtle Island' through Clarence King's ringing hammer and Muir's mountain devotionalism, through Jeffers' astute and cranky foresight. We get Dame Shirley's gold country letters and then the freshly appreciated Jaime de Angulo; Josephine Miles together with James F. Cain and Nathanael West! Ending this volume with the tough, acerbic prose of Chester Hymes. Finally- a book to match the land." —Gary Snyder

"The publication of this anthology--so comprehensive, so vital in its content, so illustrative of high literary experience--is in and of itself an important milestone in the evolution of California as a foundational component of American civilization. The Literature of California is more than an anthology. It suggests as well a vast public work, a Golden Gate Bridge of intellectual and imaginative materials. Here in this anthology, to paraphrase Joan Didion on UC Berkeley, can now be found one of California's best ideas on itself." —Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California

"An extraordinary volume, at once imaginative, academically sound and meticulously comprehensive."—Carolyn See, author of Golden Days

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
GENERAL INTRODUCTION

PART ONE . INDIAN BEGINNINGS

ORIGINS AND THE WAY OF THE WORLD
The Creation (Maidu)
The Creation: Turtle Island (Maidu)
Origin of the Mountains (Yokuts)
The Three Worlds (Chumash)
The Making of Man (Chumash)
Initiation Song (Yuki)
Cottontail and the Sun (Owens Valley Paiute)

LOVE, MARRIAGE, FAMILY
Puberty Dance Song (Wintu)
Three Love Songs (Wintu)
About-the-House Girl (Karok)
The Girl Who Married Rattlesnake (Pomo)
The Man and the Owls (Yokuts)
Coyote Cooks His Daughter (Cupeño)

ORDER, COMMUNITY
An Ordered World (Miwok)
Prayer for Good Fortune (Yokuts)
Feast Oration (Wintu)

CHANTS, DREAMS, AND DANCES
To the Edge of the Earth (Wintu)
Rattlesnake Ceremony Song (Yokuts)
Dream Time (Ohlone)
Four Dream Cult Songs (Wintu)
Dancing on the Brink of the World
(Costanoan)

OLD AGE, DEATH, AND THE AFTERLIFE
Old Gambler’s Song (Konkow)
Grandfather’s Prayer (Wintu)
Death Song (Cupeño)
Burial Oration (Wintu)
The Soul’s Journey to Similaqsa (Chumash)
The Land of the Dead (Serrano)
Summons to a Mourning Ceremony (Miwok)

PART TWO . ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF
EXPLORATION AND CONQUEST, 1769–1870

GARCI RODRIGUEZ ORDONEZ DE MONTALVO
“The Queen of California” from Las Sergas de
Esplandián (c. 1510)

FRAY JUAN CRESPI
“The Naming of Santa Ana and Los Angeles”
from Fray Juan Crespí: Missionary Explorer of
the Pacific Coast (1769)

PEDRO FAGES
“Report to the Viceroy” from A Historical,
Political, and Natural Description of California
(1773)

JEAN FRANCOIS DE GALOUP DE LA PEROUSE
“A Visit to Carmel” from Voyage autour du
Monde (1786)

NIKOLAI PETROVICH REZANOV
A Letter to the Minister of Commerce (1806)

JEDEDIAH STRONG SMITH
“The Trapper and the Padre” from The
Southwest Expeditions of Jedediah S. Smith: His
Personal Account of the Journey to California
(1826)

PABLO TAC
“Our Games and Dances” from Conversion of
the San Luiseños of Alta California (c. 1835)

RICHARD HENRY DANA
“Haole and Kanaka” from Two Years before the
Mast (1840)

JOHN CHARLES FREMONT
“Some Points in Geography” from Report of
the Exploring Mission to Oregon and North
California (1845)

LANDSFORD HASTINGS
From The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and
California (1845)

MARIANO GUADALUPE
“The Bear Flag Party” from Recuerdos
Históricos y Personales Tocante a la Alta
California (1846)

EDWIN BRYANT
“The California Battalion” from What I Saw in
California (1846)

SARAH ELENOR ROYCE
From A Frontier Lady (1849)

BAYARD TAYLOR
“San Francisco by Day and Night” from El
Dorado, or Adventures in the Path of Empire
(1849)

LOUISE CLAPPE [DAME SHIRLEY]
“A Trip into the Mines” from The Shirley
Letters (1852)

ELIZA W.B. FARNHAM
From California In-Doors and Out (1856)

JOHN ROLLIN RIDGE [YELLOW BIRD]
From The Life and Adventures of Joaquín
Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit
(1854)

T'TCESA [LUCY YOUNG]
“Lucy’s Story” from Out of the Past: A True
Indian Story (c. 1862)

WILLIAM HENRY BREWER
“Los Angeles and Environs” from Up and
Down California, 1860–64 (1864)

CLARENCE KING
“Mount Shasta” from Mountaineering in the
Sierra Nevada (1872)

PART THREE . THE RISE OF A CALIFORNIA
LITERATURE, 1865–1914

SAMUEL CLEMENS [MARK TWAIN]
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County (1867)
From Roughing It (1872)

BRET HARTE
The Outcasts of Poker Flats (1869)

CHARLES WARREN STODDARD
Old Monterey (c. 1870)

INA COOLBRITH
Copa de Oro (The California Poppy)
The Mariposa Lily
Millennium
Retrospect (In Los Angeles) (c. 1880)

JOAQUIN MILLER
“Californian” from Songs of the Sierra (1872)

AMBROSE BIERCE
Moxon’s Master (1893)

MARIA AMPARO RUIZ DE BURTON
From The Squatter and the Don (1885)

THOCMETONY [SARAH WINNEMUCCA]
From Life among the Piutes (1883)

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
From The Silverado Squatters (1883)

HELEN HUNT JACKSON
From Ramona (1884)

JOHIAH ROYCE
From California: A Study of American
Character (1886)

MARY HALLOCK FOOTE
How the Pump Stopped at the Morning
Watch (c. 1890)

EDWIN MARKHAM
The Man with the Hoe (1899)
The Sower (1901)

JOHN MUIR
From The Mountains of California (1894)

GEORGE STERLING
Beyond the Breakers
The Black Vulture (c. 1900)

GERTRUDE ATHERTON
From The Californians (1898)

EDITH MAUD EATON
In the Land of the Free (1912)

YONE NOGUCHI
Some Stories of My Western Life
Ah, Who Says So?
My Poetry (1897)

CHARLES FLETCHER LUMMIS
“Walking to Los Angeles” from “As I
Remember” (unpublished ms., c. 1910)

L. FRANK BAUM
From Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)

ANONYMOUSE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS a
Four Poems of Angel Island and Chinatown
(c. 1910–1940)

JACK LONDON
From Martin Eden (1908)

FRANK MORRIS
From The Octopus (1901)

MARY AUSTIN
From The Land of Little Rain (1903)

PART FOUR . DREAMS AND AWAKENINGS,
1915–1945

ROBINSON JEFFERS
Continent’s End
To the Stone Cutters
Tor House
Hurt Hawks
Rock and Hawk
The Purse-Seine
Carmel Point (c. 1924–1934)

JAIME DE ANGULO
From Indians in Overalls (1950)

UPTON SINCLAIR
From Oil! (1927)

DASHIELL HAMMETT
From The Maltese Falcon (1930)

WALLACE THURMAN
From The Blacker the Berry (1929)

YVOR WINTERS
See Los Angeles First
The Slow Pacific Swell
John Sutter
Moonlight Alert
The California Oaks (c. 1929–1939)

JAMES M. CAIN
From The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934)

WILLIAM SAROYAN
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze
(1934)
From Quarter, Half, Three-Quarter and Whole
Notes (1936)

HORACE MCCOY
From They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1935)

GEORGE R. STEWART
From Ordeal by Hunger (1936)

JOHN STEINBECK
From The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

CAREY MCWILLIAMS
From Factories in the Field (1939)

HILDEGARDE FLANNER
Noon on Alameda Street
12 O’Clock Freight
Lava Has Meaning
The Buck
Hawk Is a Woman (c. 1929–1939)

JOSEPHINE MILES
Tehachapi South
The Directors
Now That April’s Here
City
Subdivision (c. 1935–1939)

JOHN FANTE
From Ask the Dust (1939)

RAYMOND CHANDLER
From The Big Sleep (1939)

NATHANAEL WEST
From The Day of the Locust (1939)

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
From The Love of the Last Tycoon ([1941]
1994)

M.F.K. FISHER
The First Oyster (1943)

IDWAL JONES
From The Vineyard (1942)

TOSHIO MORI
The Woman Who Makes Swell Doughnuts
The Eggs of the World
He Who Has the Laughing Face (1949)

JADE SNOW WONG
From Fifth Chinese Daughter (1950)

CARLOS BULOSAN
From America Is in the Heart (1946)

CHESTER HIMES
From If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945)

FURTHER READING
ABOUT THE EDITORS
PERMISSIONS AND CREDITS
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES