L. W. Currey, Inc.

WOON, BASIL DILLON. San Francisco and the golden empire [by] Basil Woon. New York: Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, MCMXXXV [1935]. 20.2x13 cm, pp. [1-2] [1-12] 13-407 [408: blank], 12 inserted plates (11 with illustrations from photographs, the 12th a pictorial map of northern California's wine country), 6 maps (3 folded and inserted), original green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. The focus of this travel guide, written by Woon to a "large extent" from material collected by John Cuddy, of California Inc., is San Francisco and the surrounding region. It includes a short chapter, "The High Sierra; Yosemite National Park; Lake Tahoe, pages 307-314. "The two great playgrounds of the High Sierra are the Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe. Both have been described in another book [Woon's INCREDIBLE LAND A JAUNTY BAEDEKER TO HOLLYWOOD AND THE GREAT SOUTHWEST, (1933)], but since they properly belong within the territory of this book it is appropriate to mention them, at least briefly." We have not yet seen a copy of INCREDIBLE LAND, which is largely a tourist guide to Southern California so cannot comment on it's Sierra Nevada content. Basil Dillon Woon (1883-1974), American journalist, screenwriter and travel writer, was born in London in 1883. He left England in 1909 at the age of 16 and worked his way to Alaska where he founded and edited a weekly newspaper north of Nome. Later he was a war correspondent covering the Mexican Revolution for the United Press. He moved to Reno, Nevada, in 1950 and died there in 1974. Private owner's bookplate affixed to the front free endpaper. A very good copy. (#166631).