- Paperback: 289 pages
- Publisher: Lulu.com (11 Aug 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1411610881
- ISBN-13: 978-1411610880
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,858,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Product Description
When two Kentucky prospectors, John Slack and Philip Arnold arrived penniless and near starving in San Francisco to deposit raw 'American' diamonds in the Bank of California, it caused quite a stir. Rumors flew across the city. This was going to be bigger than Kimberley and everyone wanted a piece of the action. But Slack and Arnold would be hard men to woo. This is a true story. What begins as a trickle in the Colorado mountains would grow into the great rush of 1872 and ruin the lives of almost everyone it touched.
From the Inside Flap
John Slack and Philip Arnold left home to get rich, never once entertaining the idea that they might end up poor. No one who left home young to seek their fortune in California set out with the intention of starving to death from a lack of funds or an absence of luck. It is true that most of the dreamers who crossed the mountains in search of gold didn't find any, and if they did, the publican or the bandit grew fat off them long before they began any digging. The idea that California was paved with gold was more compelling than the reality that California was the place where a man could lose everything he had, as well as his health and sanity. The editor of the San Francisco Alta knew well what drew men to his city. 'Bright visions of big lumps of gold and large quantities of them, to be gathered without any severe labor, haunt them night and day before they reach here. Here they hope to find a land where the inevitable law of God that 'man shall live by the sweat of his brow''has been repealed.' It was hope that had brought them out west in the beginning. It was hope that had sustained them in all the years they had not found hardly anything worthwhile. Once folks quit Elizabethtown it was rare they would ever return. Certainly no one ever expected Philip Arnold to return. The fact that he came back a rich man was astonishing to all. People never tired of talking about it, or of speculating on how he had done it, or why he had returned without John Slack. We all knew someone who had gone over the divide in search of a fortune, but almost no one could recall anyone ever coming back.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Twelve long years after Philip Arnold and John Slack had departed Kentucky, brimful of optimism, life found them stepping off the Oakland ferry into a sea of genuine San Francisco mud. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Twelve long years after Philip Arnold and John Slack had departed Kentucky, brimful of optimism, life found them stepping off the Oakland ferry into a sea of genuine San Francisco mud. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon U.K.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
American Dreams, 27 April 2006
By Graham Attenborough - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Diamonds - The Rush of '72 (Paperback)
Sam North's novel, though written in a light hearted style, explores the dark heart of the American Dream. Its main characters are all real historical actors and the story which unfolds actually happened and is a great example of rigorous research. Not wishing to give the story away I should only really say that my first immpressions of Slack and Arnold (the two prospectors and main characters) began to change as their tale unfolds because so much of what happens in their world is not what it seems and as the plot twists and turns so their characters develop and change too. What I really liked about this novel was the way that North explores the period, its greed, shortsightedness, and crass lust for riches at all costs, without being judgemental. The gaudy property of the fabulously rich is subltly juxtaposed with the harshness of extreme poverty and want. In my view, this novel goes a long way to reveal the gaping flaw at the heart of God's own democracy, the fact that its built on the bones of a crushed and disregarded native culture, the survivors of which (like other non-white citizens) are treated by the white, Anglo-Saxon characters, not so much with contempt but with indifference, as though they are invisible. I enjoyed this story very much and the fact that it's a true story makes it even more interesting. American History brought to true life.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Fiction > Historical
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
