Author: Awes, Addison [Pseud. of William M. Cubery]
Title: Why a Rich Yankee Did Not Settle in California [Signed/Inscribed by William Cubery]
Description: Boston and San Francisco: Cubery and Company, 1900. Hardcover. First edition; 8 1/2 x 6; pp. 115; brown cloth over boards; gilt title; very faint, narrow spot along fore-edge of front board; two small scratches to back board; tips of spine a bit creased; illustrated with b&w plates; very good to near fine condition. Signed and inscribed by the author: "Jeremiah Lynch, from his young friend William M. Cubery." In the 1890s, Addison Awes headed to California from New England - for his wife's health and for his children's education, as he had heard of excellent universities out west. In his book, his only one written, Awes wrote chapters on Yosemite, the railroads, San Francisco, the California millionaires, ranch life, etc. He also clearly expressed his displeasure with "the deplorable condition of one of the grandest states in the Union." He stated that California was full of drunks and corrupt politicians, and he specifically lambasted the California girls, whom he called the 'Sunday Picnic Girls' - "they are immodest, rude, and boisterous, and have a peculiar dare-devil way about them which makes them repulsive to the true gentleman." Needless to say, Californians were not amused and several scathing reviews were published, including one by Bret Harte, in which he wrote: "It was opportune surely though in a somewhat doubtful sense that at this half centennial juncture one should thrust a volume upon the public aiming at the dispraise even the moral arraignment of California. A wise bit of caution has constrained the author to hide his identity under the pseudonym (presumably it is so) of Addison Awes Jr..It lifts the eyebrows a bit to note in the first place the author's admission that the book is published to please some old lady neighbors These dame friends of Addison A Jr and amiable auditors to whom he graciously read his manuscript, were residents of far away Gloucester in Massachusetts by the Atlantic sea, and so had a provincial willingness that California should be thumped and belabored with whatever word-cudgel the author was minded to seise upon." (Bret, H. (1900). A California Jeremiade. Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, 270-270). Ill.: 0. 2.

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