Ski Tales

The History of China Peak and Sierra Summit

California Snatch Racket

Kidnappings During the Prohibition and Depression Eras

by James Benelli

$10.95 • 6" x 9" • Tradepaper • ISBN 9781884995668

 

Written by an old timer who has been schussing the nooks and the crannies, the steeps and the deeps, for 50 years, Ski Tales: The History of China Peak and Sierra Summit reveals the unique, dramatic, and often humorous history of Sierra Summit, from its beginning as China Peak to the present day. 

 

by James W. Smith and W. Lane Rogers

$16.95 • 6" x 9" • Tradepaper • ISBN 978-1-884995-63-7

 

In California in the 1920s and 1930s, kidnapping—nicknamed the snatch racket by a cynical newspaperman—was the most booming criminal enterprise around. Driven by greed, desperation and sometimes plain stupidity, ransom artists preyed indiscriminately on Hollywood socialites, wealthy heiresses, and even poor people who couldn’t pay a dime.

 

Death in California

The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the State of California

 

 

California Justice

Shootouts, Lynchings,
and Assassinations
in the
Golden State

by David Kulczyk

$15.95 • 6" x 9" • Tradepaper • Index • ISBN 1884995-57-9

Ah, carefree California—the land of beaches, sunshine, celebrities … and so many shocking and gruesome ways to die. David Kulczyk, the dean of offbeat California history, chronicles 31 bizarre and grisly true stories in his new book, Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State. 

by David Kulczyk

$15.95 • 6" x 9" • Tradepaper • Index • ISBN 1884995-54-5/

 

 Meet the victims and perpetrators responsible for California’s most notorious shootouts, lynchings, and assassinations.

 

 

Windows on the Past

Early Valley Treasures

As Seen Through the Lens of

Claude C. "Pop" Laval

 

 

Day of the Grizzly
The Tragic Story of the

Mighty California Grizzly
 

by Elizabeth M. Laval

Research & Photographic Editor, Stephen L. Brown

Contributing Author, William J. Conway, Jr.

$29.95 • 200 pages • Hardcover • ISBN 1-884995-47-0

 

Covering the Fresno area into 1918, this book looks at important events that were taking place in the Valley during the turbulent teens. Actual newspaper articles from the time are incorporated with the writings of "Pop" Laval to form a chronicle of life in this region unlike any before published!

 

by William B. Secrest
$25.00  • 6" x 9" • 350 pages • Hardcover • Illustrations • ISBN 1-884995-53-5

In 1769, some 10,000 grizzlies roamed California.
One hundred years later, these magnificent beasts faced extinction. Today they are long gone.
In The Day of the Grizzly, prominent
California historian William Secrest, Sr.  tells the fascinating story of the most ferocious animal in the West and how it met it’s demise at the hand of man.
 

California Badmen

Mean Men with Guns

 

Windows on the Past

The Fresno Fair

As Seen through the Lens of Claude C. "Pop" Laval

by William Secrest

$15.95 • Trade Paperback • 272 pages

6" x 9"• Index • Bibliography • ISBN 1-884995-51-9

 

California Badmen is a exploration of little-known Western frontier gunfighters. Billy Mulligan, Sam Temple, Peter Olsen, Joe Dye, Bob McFarlane and those responsible for the Rancheria killings are brought back through the pages and taking their stand in Californian history. The riotous lives of these unique collection of mean men with guns spill over the California frontier and rival the likes of “Wild Bill” Hickok, Billy the Kid, and the Earp Family.

 

by Elizabeth M. Laval

Research & Photographic Editor, Stephen L. Brown Contributing Author, William J. Conway, Jr.

$19.95 • Trade Paperback

 

Claude C. "Pop" Laval's camera lens missed little of the excitement of the early fairs. Many of his magnificent photographs are available in print for the first time in this book.

 

Murder by the Bay

Historic Homicide in and about the City of San Francisco 

California Feuds

Vengeance, Vendettas & Violence on the Old West Coast 

by Charles F. Adams

$14.95 (22.95 Canada) • 298 pages • Trade Paper

ISBN 1-884995-46-2

 

Murder has a long and distinguished history in San Francisco. The homicides chronicled here have been selected because a convergence of personality, circumstance, character and geography makes them particularly San Franciscan.

by William B. Secrest

$15.95 (24.95 Canada) • 272 pages • Trade Paper

ISBN 1-884995-42-X

 

Noted California historian William Secrest brings us another in his list of best-selling sagas chronicling the ignominious yet fascinating side of the state.

Here, for the first time, are the tales of personal vendettas in a time when men made their own law and left their women to pick up the pieces.

 

Dark and Tangled

Threads of Crime

San Francisco's Famous Police Detective Isaiah W. Lees

 

San Francisco's Lost Landmarks

 

 

by William Secrest

$15.95 ($24.95 Canada) • Trade Paperback

 

He came to California with the great Gold Rush, but instead of riches, Isaiah W. Lees discovered his great talent for solving crimes and catching criminals.

.

 

by James R. Smith

$14.95 (22.95 Canada) • 298 pages • Trade Paper

ISBN 1-884995-44-6

 

With long forgotten stories and evocative photographs, the book showcases the once-familiar sites that have faded into dim memories and hazy legends.

 

 

When the Great Spirit Died

The Destruction of the California Indians 1850-1860

The Valley’s

Legends & Legacies

Vol I, II, III, IV, V

 

 

 

 

 

by William Secrest

$15.95 • 352 pp • Trade Paper • Photographs/Illustration 

 

Includes extensive amounts of previously unpublished materials; many of the photographs and eyewitness accounts appear for the first time. Here the pioneers and the Indians tell their own stories. Their words tell us all we need to know about the fate of the California Indian.

.

By Catherine Morison Rehart

$18.95 • Trade Paperback

 

Employing her near-magical ability to charm and delight, Catherine Morison Rehart continues to entertain us with true tales of Valley denizens of the past.

 

California Desperados

Stories of Early California Outlaws in Their Own Words

 

 

Perilous Trails,

Dangerous Men

Early California Stagecoach Robbers and Their Desperate Careers

By William Secrest

$15.95 • 272 pp • Trade Paperback Photographs/Illustration 

 

Witness the cruel confessions of the ruthless gang of California bandits who murdered a whole family, men, women and children, in the opening days of the Gold Rush.

By William Secrest

$15.95 • 272 pp •Trade Paper • Photographs/Illustration 

 

Punctuated by gunshots and posse hoofbeats, these true tails, many told for the first time, illustrate, in both words and rare photographs, the perilous trails of dangerous men from a time gone forever.

The Newhall Incident
America’s Worst Uniformed

Cop Massacre

 

Remembering

Cesar Chavez

by Chief John Anderson with Marsh Cassady

$14.95 • Trade Paperback • 192 pages

 

Midnight, April 5, 1970. Minutes after a red Pontiac with two men in it is stopped, four young California Highway Patrolmen lay dead of gunshot wounds.

The incident still stands as the worst of its kind in America.

 

Hardcover • 10" x 9" • 112 pages • $25.00
ISBN 1-884956-11-4 / 9781884956119

In this collection of firsthand accounts by those who knew him best, a portrait of an uncommonly complex man, both driven and focused, yet humble, empathic and exceedingly principled, emerges. The reader gains an understanding of the yoke Chavez chose to place onto his own shoulders as well as the ideals he employed to accomplish for the migrant farmworkers what many predicted would be impossible.

 

San Juan Bautista

The Town, The Mission & The Park

 

 

Black Bart Boulevardier Bandit

The Saga of California's

Most Mysterious Stagecoach Robber and the Men Who Sought To Capture Him

 

 By Charles Clough

$18.95 • 144pp  • Trade Paperback  Bibliography • Index

 

Step into the vibrant past of San Juan Bautista and encounter gentle Mustune Indians, hardworking Franciscan Monks, fierce outlaws and a host of other fascinating characters.

 

By George Hoeper

$9.95 ($15.95 Canada) • 168 pp 

Paperback • Historic Photographs • Maps

 

California Gold Country historian George Hoeper reveals what promises to be the final piece to the 100-year-old puzzle of the infamous poetry-writing stagecaoch robber Black Bart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2010 Linden Publishing, Inc.

559-233-6633 • 800-345-4447 • info@quilldriverbooks.com