FIRST FAMILIES OF THE SIERRAS

Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, and Co.. Very Good. 1876. First Edition. Hardcover. 258, (4) pages; Contents clean and secure in original brown cloth binding with gilt lettering at spine; minor wear at spine ends, corners a bit rounded. A very nice example of this first edition of Miller's wonderful stories of early California settlers. Cincinnatus Heine Miller (1837 – 1913), better known by his pen name Joaquin Miller, was an American poet, author, and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras" after the Sierra Nevada where he wrote. As a young man, he moved to northern California during the California Gold Rush years. A number of his popular works, Life Amongst the Modocs, An Elk Hunt, and The Battle of Castle Crags, draw on his experiences living in a Native village, etc. He was wounded in the cheek and neck with an arrow during a battle with Native Americans, recuperating at the Gold Rush-era mining town of Portuguese Flat. Miller's exploits included a variety of occupations: mining-camp cook (who came down with scurvy from only eating what he cooked), lawyer and a judge, newspaper writer, Pony Express rider, and horse thief. On July 10, 1859, Miller was caught stealing a horse gelding valued at $80, a saddle worth $15, and other items. He was jailed briefly in Shasta County for the crime, and various accounts give other incidents of his repeating this crime in California and Oregon. In 1886, Miller published The Destruction of Gotham, a book which was one of the earliest to depict a prostitute as a heroine. That year, he moved to Oakland, California, and built a home for himself he nicknamed "The Abbey" on property he called "The Hights" [sic]. He remained there until his death in 1913. .