ing and presswork of this book are entirely his own
work. No one acquainted with the methods employed in a legitimate
book-printing house will fail to recognize the fact that it is well
nigh impossible to print a _book_ without possession of the minute
technical knowledge essential in each department. Hence the most
skillful book-printer is distrustful of himself, unless supported by
experienced craftsmen, and more especially by time-tried proof-readers.
For many favors extended while the Letters were in press, thanks are
due, and are now acknowledged, to Milton J. Ferguson, the librarian of
the State Library at Sacramento, California, who was never-failing in
either service or patience.

Dame Shirley, _the_ Writer _of these_ Letters

An Appreciation

BEING _a_ PAPER _prepared by_ MRS. MARY VIOLA TINGLEY LAWRENCE _to be
read before a_ SAN FRANCISCO _literary society on_ MRS. LOUISE AMELIA
KNAPP SMITH CLAPPE (DAME SHIRLEY)

The Shirley Letters, written in the pioneer days of 1851 and 1852, were
hailed throughout the country as the first-born of California
literature. Mrs. Clappe, their author, was the one woman who depicted
that era of romantic life, dipping her pen into a rich personal
experience, and writing with a clarity and beauty born of an alert
comprehensive mind and a rare sense of refinement and character.

The Letters had been written to a loved sister in the East, but
Ferdinand C. Ewer, a _litterateur_ of San Francisco, a close friend,
fell upon them by chance, and, realizing their historic value, urged
that they be published in the Pioneer, of which he was editor. These
Shirley Letters, thus published, brought the new West to the wondering
East, and showed to those who had not made the venture, the courage,
the fervor, the beauty, the great-heartedness, that made up life in the
new El Dorado. Shirley's sympathetic Interpretation of their tumultuous
experience cheered the Argonauts by throwing before their eyes the
drama in which they were unconsciously the swash-buckling, the tragic,
or the romantic actors, and helped to crystallize the growing love for
the new land, which love turned fortune and adventure seekers into
home-makers and empire-builders.

This quickly recognized author became the leader of the first _salon_
the Golden West ever knew, and one of the foremost influences in
California's social and intellectual life, by force of a high
intelligence and a heart and soul that were a no