The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta (Unabridged‪)‬

Whether intended as historical fiction or not, this tale of a California bandit in the early years of the Gold Rush by America's first Native American novelist was based on real occurrences. By early 1853, a certain "Joaquin" was being blamed for seemingly every murder and robbery in the young Golden State—a Robin Hood-like figure originally from Mexico said to be an inspiration a half a century later for the character of Zorro (who in turn was an influence on masked vigilante and avenger characters like Batman). Only a year after newspapers printed stories of Joaquin's violent death, author John Rollin Ridge, known as Yellow Bird in the Cherokee Nation, delivered this adventure of the folk hero with nerves of iron who battled danger and death.

Originally published by W. B. Cooke in San Francisco in 1854, the sole surviving copy of which reportedly being housed for decades in a private collection in Morristown, NJ.