American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author, Bayard Taylor (1825 – 1878) led a remarkable life and left a fascinating legacy. His travel books are known for their keen details, humor, and adventure. His poetry still stands up and his translations were at one time considered some of the finest. In 1849, Taylor made a trip to California and Mexico. Throughout the journey he kept detailed accounts of adventures, mishaps, happy times, and interesting characters he met along the way. In the tradition of classic travel writers, Taylor takes you along to a fascinating world that no longer exists. Gold prospecting in California and surviving robbers in Mexico were just part of the exciting adventures Taylor encountered. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

Matthew J. Davenport’s The Longest Minute is the spellbinding true story of the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, and how a great earthquake sparked a devastating and preventable firestorm. At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco, catching most of the city asleep. For approximately one minute, shockwaves buckled streets, shattered water mains, collapsed buildings, crushed hundreds of residents to death and trapped many alive. Fires ignited and blazed through dry wooden ruins and grew into a firestorm. For the next three days, flames devoured collapsed ruins, killed trapped survivors, and nearly destroyed what was then the largest city in the American West. Meticulously researched and gracefully written, The Longest Minute is both a harrowing chronicle of devastation and the portrait of a city’s resilience in the burning aftermath of greed and folly. Drawing on the letters and diaries and unpublished memoirs of survivors and previously unearthed archival records, Matthew Davenport combines history and science to tell the dramatic true story of one of the greatest disasters in American history.