Friedrich Gerstäcker

Thirteen-year-old Zinnia Taylor uncovers family secrets and self truths while clearing a mysterious settler trail that begins on her family's farm in Kentucky.

Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816-1872), a native of Hamburg, left Germany in 1837 for a six-year stay in New York. On his return to Germany, he published two travel memoirs, and the Frankfurt government subsidized his return to America in 1849 to collect information for prospective emigrants to California. On his return home, he published several books dealing with his travels. Gerstäcker's travels (1854) is the English edition of the author's Reisen, published in Germany not long after his return to California. Nearly one half of the book is devoted to the sea journey with stops in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and the Argentine pampas, crossing the Cordilleras to Valparaiso, Chile, where he obtained passage to California. He describes San Francisco and Sacramento in the fall of 1849 as well as his experiences as a prospector on the Feather River. Leaving the gold fields, Gerstäcker then spends several weeks at the Mission Dolores before trying his luck in 1850 at the goldfields beyond Stockton at Murphy's Diggings, San Antonio, and Mokelumne. He concludes with his voyage home from California via Honolulu, Australia, and the Dutch East Indies.

Friedrich Gerstäcker (1816-1872), a native of Hamburg, left Germany in 1837 for a six-year stay in New York. On his return to Germany, he published two travel memoirs, and the Frankfurt government subsidized his return to America in 1849 to collect information for prospective emigrants to California. On his return home, he published several books dealing with his travels. Scenes of life in California (1942) is the English translation of Californische skizzen, published in Germany in 1856. Here Gerstc̃ker describes his westward voyage in 1849, stops at Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, crossing the Andes to reach Valparaiso, and his sea journey to San Francisco. He next recalls his fourteen months in California, September 1849-November 1850, which saw him prospect for gold and keep store at Feather River, Murphy's New Diggings, and Mosquito Gulch. Several of the incidents described at length in these scenes are touched on briefly in his longer work Gerstc̃ker's travels (1854), which also describes his stays in San Francisco and his voyage from that port to Honolulu, Australia, and the Dutch East Indies on his way back to Germany.