SAMUEL BRANNAN AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE

by Reva Scott ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 6, 1944

Saga of a rugged individual whose vitality and ventures were part of California's early history, whose grandiose gestures and personal scandals added plenty of color to that pioneering period. Quite a lad: -- he was a convert to Mormonism and took it off and on like a cloak to suit his convenience, -- had a wife in Ohio and another in New England; he headed a band for Oregon and wound up in Mexican California; he planned to take Yrba Buena by arms, but the U.S. Army got there first; he saw good prospects elsewhere than Salt Lake City and broke with Brigham Young over it ; outwardly he used Mormonism and church money and prospered; he kept the news of the Sutter gold strike until it suited his convenience to disclose it; he rode the boom, high, wide and handsome; he helped form the Vigilantes. Eventually, following an affair with Lola Montez, he was divorced by his estranged wife, and this -- plus his extravagance -- combined to put his bank on the rocks. He ended his days, after a fiasco in Mexico, crippled and selling pencils. Interpretative recreation of the man and his times -- a comet-like footnote to a spectacular period. Odd bit of Americana -- with special regional market.

Pub Date: June 6, 1944

ISBN: 1419105310

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1944

Categories: NONFICTION