A Venture in History

A Venture in History: The Production, Publication, and Sale of the Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft by Harry Clark offers a revealing account of how one of the nineteenth century’s most ambitious historical enterprises came into being. Between 1874 and 1890, San Francisco publisher and bookseller Hubert Howe Bancroft oversaw the creation of his monumental Works—thirty-nine volumes covering the history and culture of western North America, from Alaska to Central America. Drawing on his unparalleled collection of manuscripts and books, Bancroft marshaled a team of assistants to produce a reference set still regarded as foundational. Yet the massive project also depended on aggressive sales campaigns, including door-to-door canvassing, which both ensured its completion and exposed it to criticism.

Clark traces every phase of the endeavor: Bancroft’s reliance on hired writers and researchers, his constant oversight of production, the business strategies of his publishing firms, and the complex marketing of the Works. He also examines the controversial sequel, the seven-volume Chronicles of the Builders of the Commonwealth, a vanity biography that damaged Bancroft’s reputation even as it sought to extend his achievement. Using Bancroft’s autobiography Literary Industries, unpublished correspondence, and testimonies from collaborators like Frances Fuller Victor, Clark reconstructs the interplay of scholarship, commerce, and personality that defined the project. At once a study in the making of history and in the history of publishing, A Venture in History assesses Bancroft’s lasting contributions while situating his enterprise within the cultural and economic life of Gilded Age America.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.