Summary

The Literature of California, Volume I is a comprehensive anthology of California literature from Indian origins to World War II. Edited by Jack Hicks, James D. Houston, Maxine Hong Kingston and Al Young, (prominent California writers and scholars), it includes selections by more than eighty writers, with introductory essays and headnotes for literary, cultural and historical contexts. More than 20 photographs highlight major figures. For enthusiasts and serious teachers/scholars, Volume I has four sections: (1) the literature of indigenous California Indians before European contact; (2) accounts of discovery, exploration, and travel (1769-1865); (3) the "Golden Age" of California letters, from Mark Twain to Jack London and Mary Austin (1865-1915); and (4) twentieth century coming of age-from Robinson Jeffers to Jade Snow Wong and Chester Himes-in which writers reflect the concerns of the state and find international stature (1915-1945).

This is a 21st century canon of California literature, including familiars (Twain to Steinbeck), and also dramatizing California's turbulent cultural history (rediscovery of writers such as Ruiz de Burton, Noguchi, Sui Sin Far, Bulosan and redefinition of others, like Thurman and Himes), to chronicle fascination and disenchantment with the "Golden Dream." The editors define the rise of aesthetic developments with California roots: Mary Austin's ecofeminist nature prose, early fantasy/science fiction by Ambrose Bierce and L. Frank Baum, the work of M.F.K. Fisher (the first major American writer on food and place), and Robinson Jeffers's verse-prime in modernist American poetry. They represent and discuss classic hard-boiled detective fiction (Hammett, Cain and Chandler), jazzy Depression prosepoems by William Saroyan and John Fante, and close on narratives of awakening by writers of the state's major ethnic populations (Wong, Bulosan and Himes). And they trace the literature of distinct regions as they were discovered or evolved-from the splendor of the Sierra Nevada to the postmodern tangle of L.A. Running beneath individual visions is a dialog between the optimism of California as an El Dorado and anger at the emptiness of golden promises. The mood ranges from the bawdy antics of the Indian demigod Coyote, to the tattered grandeur of Steinbeck's Joads. Throughout, there is a constant fascination with the distinct yet elusive character of California literature and life.

Myths, poems & stories from 28 California Indian tribes Montalvo Crespí Fages de la Pérouse Rezanov Smith Tac Dana Frémont Hastings Vallejo Bryant Royce Taylor Dame Shirley Farnham Ridge T'tectsa Brewer King Twain Harte Stoddard Miller Bierce Ruiz de Burton Thocmetony Stevenson Jackson Royce Foote Markham Muir Sterling Atherton Sui Sin Far Noguchi Lummis Baum Anonymous Angel Island authors London Norris Austin Jeffers de Angulo Sinclair Hammett Thurman Winters Cain Saroyan McCoy Stewart Steinbeck McWilliams Flanner Miles Fante Chandler West Fitzgerald Fisher Jones Mori Wong Bulosan Himes.