Yosemite & Its Innkeepers

Yosemite, CA: Flying Spur Press, 1974. First edition. Hardcover. Association copy, inscribed to Horace Albright--who wrote the foreword to this volume--on a typed, signed label affixed to the first blank: "May 17, 1975, For Horace Albright, whose memories and Foreword enhance this book, with the appreciation, admiration, and deep affection of the author. Shirley."  Laid in at front is stapled article torn neatly from the summer 1974 issue of California Historical Quarterly by Sargent with the title "Welllllcome to Camp Curry," an article in the lead up to this book. Notations on the back may be in Albright's hand. Also included is a photocopy of a one-page article that describes the opening of The Ahwahnee Hotel from what may be a National Parks Association publication.

Labels were Shirley Sargent's usual mode, it would seem because her handwriting (from other samples we've seen) was actually very tough verging on impossible to read. Her labels suggest a level of advanced thoughtfulness and have a certain charm.  She was a prolific historian of Yosemite. Her bestselling book was John Muir in Yosemite National Park (1972), but she published on many facets of the park and its history via her own Flying Spur Press.  

Horace Albright became the second director of the National Park Service following Stephen Mather, and much could be written about his accomplishments and how he steered the NPS; he was awarded a Presidential Medal for Freedom. But first he was the superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, and then he was briefly the superintendent of Yosemite. Shirley Sargent apparently went to school with his daughter in Yosemite during that time. 

Yosemite & Its Innkeepers is part coffee-table book, part useful reference as to the development of tourism and amenities in Yosemite, and it uses these subjects as a way to tell the history of Yosemite more generally. All the different inns and camps are profiled at length. Quarto in red cloth boards, map endpapers, 176 pages with index. Ansel Adams photo on rear of jacket. According to the index Horace Albright is mentioned on more than a dozen pages

An about fine book in very good dust jacket with mainly a crease and one-inch tear at lower left of front panel.  A nice association--a great Yosemite tour and talk piece.