A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906

New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005. Assumed First Edtion . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 6" x 9. 462 Pages Indexed. Very slightly concave spine otherwise tight square book with no marks or stamps. Here is a rich anthology of story, legend, poetry, and fact, celebrating the special qualities and rewards of all sorts of family relationships. Husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews-all are highlighted in turn as this book roams over the family tree- root, branch, leaf, and bud. One meets Ma Joad, Cress Delahanty, Tom Sawyer, Parris Mitchell, Heidi, Mrs. Wiggs, and Auntie Mame --a last a moment when the pressure or support of some relative is of critical importance and comes into sharp focus. Even Elsie Dinsmore and her father appear in this all-out gathering of the clan. Nonfiction selections reveal Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Butler Yeats, and John F. Kennedy as fathers. Two Presidents and a First Lady appear, not as our people, but as parents or progeny, dealing with problems that they cannot or do not wish to put aside.