SOURCE: “The California Gold Rush as a Basis for Literature,” in Americana-Austriaca: Beitrage zur Amerikakunde, Vol. 2, 1970, pp. 61-80.

In the following essay, Reynolds presents an overview of the literature of the gold rush era in California, offering a detailed history of the period and examining how the literature reflected the times.

The discovery of gold on the banks of the American River in 1848 was the signal for one of the most unique mass migrations since the Völkerwanderung of the Germanic tribes. Some 100,000 adventurers are estimated to have converged on the gold fields of California within the twelve months following James Marshall's sensational discovery. “The gold in the rivers, the dry diggings and ravines, is accessible to any man who has the strength to use a pan or washer, a spade and pick-ax,” reported the Honorable Thomas Butler King to the American Secretary of State¹.

“It is supposed...