The Californiacs

This sparkling satire and love letter to California opens with the "Californiac," a comic personality so dazzled by the state that every conversation becomes a sermon on its superiority. Through sharp wit and affectionate mockery, the narrator skewers regional snobbery, especially the habit of treating the East and the Midwest as dull, inferior, or apologetic by comparison, while defending the dignity and beauty of her own New England home. From there, the book widens into a vivid portrait of California as a place of civic pride, radiant landscapes, and near-mythic vitality. San Francisco stands at the center: a city of hills, fog, ferryboats, steep streets, rebuilt neighborhoods, and cosmopolitan energy, where old remnants survive beside modern bustle and people of many backgrounds mingle in a vibrant urban life. The state's scenery is compared to Italy and Japan, its southern roads unfold in golden hills and redwoods, and even its laborers, women, and men are rendered as unusually handsome, spirited, and youthful. Festivals, politics, athletics, and public celebrations all become pageants in a culture that turns boosterism into art. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.