John A. Sutter Jr., Statement Regarding Early California Experiences

1st printing. 8vo, Brick red cloth. Limited to 160 copies. The club's second publication. John Sutter Jr was the eldest son of Capt. John Sutter; he managed the Sutter properties during most of the critical period between 1848 and 1851, and was himself the founder of the city of Sacramento. By 18952, the Sutter holdings had all been lost, and Sutter Jr was a penniless exile in Mexico. He returned to California early in 1855 hoping to retrieve some of his lost fortune. Here, published for the first time, is the story of his life in California, telling how the property was lost and how he had been drugged and swindled. A few months after writing this, he moved again to Mexico where he became a successful business-man and public official. He never returned to California. "His 'Statement' is a straightforward and guileless account…and its revelations are essential to a true understanding of the Sutter family and their part in the early history of Sacramento. Perhaps nowhere else is the unprincipled scramble for land in the Sacramento Valley so well portrayed." The original manuscript is now in the collections of the California State Library. The author's own copy, with his signature and printed address label on the front paste-down.

CONDITION: A Fine, virtually pristine copy; no d/w, as issued. [An imperfectly bound copy with pages 25-28 preceding pages 21-24.]