Gold: The Marvellous History of General John Augustus Sutter

By Blaise Cendrars

Book Overview

In January 1848, John Augustus Sutter, "the first American millionaire," was ruined by one blow of a pickaxe. That blow revealed gold in one of the streams in Sutter's Californian estate, triggering the Gold Rush that brought hordes of greedy miners from every corner of the world to Sutter's vast domain. This is the story of this bankrupt Swiss paper maker who abandoned his family and made his way to America to seek his fortune. From New York he pushed westward, eventually acquiring a huge tract of land of which he was virtually an independent ruler and which was on the point of making him "the richest man in the world" when the Gold Rush brought disaster. For the last 30 years of his life, Sutter tried vainly to get compensation from the U.S. government. He died in 1880, a broken old man. This is a work of breathless pace, fantastic humor, and soaring invention: an extraordinary story extraordinarily told.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 072061175X
• ISBN13: 9780720611755
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.9" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Tale Told in a Rush

"On again, and the track flies beneath the swift hooves of the horses." The only reason to read this is if you love Cendrars poetry and just can't get enough of it. This book has great moments especially in the early going icluding that first glimpse of our hero in small Swiss village, as well as Sutters arrival in New York and his various careers in various kinds of swindling. Cendrars paints an interesting portrait of a man who learns all he needs to know about America from conversations had in bars. His listening gains him crucial bits of information that will shape his destiny. The journey west is great Cendrars writing full of gusto and energy but the accelerated pace of the telling only remains exciting while Sutter is in motion. After he settles down the hectic style doesn't carry the story or tell it nearly as well as it should be told. Gold is an unfinished work, an attractive but only partially completed manuscript. Interesting attempt to tell a story applying Cendrars poetic breakthroughs to novel writing though only partially successful. For Cendrars completists only. Moravagine is a much more satisfying novel by this wild Swiss traveler-poet.