LIGHTS AND SHADES IN SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Company, 1876. First Edition. Hardcover. "1855 saw the appearance of a significant book on a new and vibrant city - The Annals of San Francisco (Zamorano 80, #70). A generation later an equally important volume appeared - Lights and Shades in San Francisco - by B.E. Lloyd, about whom virtually nothing is known. With a reporter’s sharp eye for detail he captures a large and mature city in its glory and its shame. He covers many diverse subjects in 76 chapters arranged in no logical order - restaurant life, the topography of the city, public libraries, the county jail and city prison, theaters, street railroads, saloons, the Chinese (eight chapters), earthquakes, street preaching, markets, public schools, and churches. Notable San Franciscans make appearances - Thomas Starr King, William Ralston, Hubert Bancroft, and the popular and beloved Emperor Norton. As Gary Kurutz writes in his introduction to the 1999 facsimile edition, '[This volume] stands as a masterpiece of San Francisciana.'" (Gordon J. Van De Water, Zamorano Select, #66). From the library of Gordon J. Van De Water, past president of The Zamorano Club and co-author of Zamorano Select (2010), with his bookplate to an inner panel of the clamshell box. Octavo: 523 p. "with appropriate illustrations." Occasional minor smudging, with archival tape mending to the margins of a few leaves. A bit of dust staining along the edges, more so to the top. The original green cloth binding has been expertly recased, with the original spine laid down and the original endpapers intact. Housed in a custom clamshell box. Good. Item #77094
Price: $400.00