Dakin, Susanna Bryant.

A SCOTCH PAISANO: Hugo Reid's Life in California, 1832-1852, Derivedfrom His Correspondence.

1939 1st Two pp. illustrations, with a folding map. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1939.First edition. Among the best portraits of life in Southern California during the pastoral days of the Mexican Ranchos, as derived from a previously uncatalogued cache of more than 170 letters by Hugo Reid (1810-52). A Cambridge-educated Scotsman who came to California from Mexico in 1832, Reid married a wealthy Gabrieleno Indian woman whose mother had been granted more than 8,000 acres of land adjacent to the San Gabriel Mission in gratitude for her indefatigable service to the Franciscans. As Master of the Santa Anita Rancho, Reid became one of most influential and important citizens in Southern California, serving as a delegate to the 1849 California Constitutional Convention. Reid and his family were prototypes for the leading characters in Helen Hunt Jackson's "Ramona," (1884) and frequently hosted William Heath Davis, who wrote about them extensively. Signed by Dakin on the front flyleaf. Orange cloth binding, with black stamping. Remnants of a removed label to the rear pastedown. The dust jacket is price-clipped and a bit shelfworn along the edges; otherwise a very good copy.

• USD 75.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: BOOKS001071I

• bookseller: Anthology Rare Books, Ltd. (USA)