California for Health, Pleasure, and Residence

Book excerpt: Charles Nordhoff (1830-1901) and his family came to America from Prussia when he was a boy and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Winning a reputation as a journalist and writer on the sea, Nordhoff was managing editor of the New York Evening Post, 1861-1871. He spent 1872-1873 travelling to California and Hawaii, and returned east to become the Washington correspondent of the New York Herald. He continued to visit California frequently and spent his last years in Coronado. California: for health, pleasure and residence (1873) was an extremely popular guidebook that persuaded many to settle in California. It opens with descriptions of the various routes available to the traveller to California and the visitor to Yosemite. Next come suggested points of interest; California agriculture (with hints to prospective settlers); and notes on the Southern California climate.