Sutter's Gold

1926. Decorations and designs for this book are the work of Harry Cimino. Johann August Sutter! Once that name was magic. How many today remember its significance? Yet there are few chapters in the chronicles of American adventure more thrilling than his spectacular career. A poverty-stricken immigrant haunted by dreams of great achievement, he fought his way to California when half of America was wilderness. There in the desolation of the Sacramento Valley he created New Helvetia, that gigantic and fabulously productive domain which made him the first of America's multimillionaires. Then came the discovery of gold on his territory...It is Sutter's tale that is told here. Strange that it should have waited for a Frenchman's pen, and remarkable that it is told with such fidelity, such an authentic ring. Cendrars is himself an adventurer, a world wanderer. Perhaps that is why he has been able to capture the spirit of Sutter's feverish and dramatic life.