California's "Fourteeners"—Mount Whitney, Mount Shasta, and the loftiest peaks of the High Sierra—have long teased the imaginations and challenged the fortitude of mountaineers. Photographer and mountaineer David Stark Wilson captures the treacherous beauty of these summits and the surrounding panorama,...

This riveting account of one of the most notable personalities of the mountain climbing world reconstructs the life of legendary mountaineer Norman Clyde (1885-1972). He made his mark on history with more than one hundred and thirty first ascents throughout...

This collection of Wallace Stegner's fiction and essays is as broad as the Great Basin and as dynamic as California's coastline. Considered one of the foremost writers of the West, Stegner ranges with ease from Utah to California, and from...

Stunned into awe by the orchid Calypso borealis, John Muir wrote: "I never before saw a plant so full of life, so perfectly spiritual, it seemed pure enough for the throne of its Creator." Muir was blessed throughout his life...

Nothing Left in My Hands is a moving portrait of the lives of early Japanese immigrants in Pajaro Valley, California. Regarded as highly skilled berry growers, the Issei—first-generation Japanese immigrants—were instrumental in the development of strawberry farming in the region....

Starting with fish and then moving on through shellfish, meat, vegetables, fruits, flowers, nuts, seeds, and acorns, Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider is a tour of the most authentically "local" food there is: Native American cuisine, in this case from...

Jazz Idiom showcases the intimate photography of Charles L. Robinson. A friend to many of the jazz musicians photographed, he often caught them in moments of candor: Charles Mingus, goateed and pensive, hunched over a Steinway, phrases dancing in his...

Join photographer Scott Squire and writer William Emery as they meander—bewildered, impressionable, and wry—through the roads, back roads, and backwaters of America's greatest agricultural valley. Leaving behind the packaged comforts of supermarkets and restaurants, the pair roamed California's Central Valley...

"Through the air on the flying trapeze, his mind hummed. Amusing it was, astoundingly funny. A trapeze to God, or to nothing, a flying trapeze to some sort of eternity; he prayed objectively for strength to make the flight with...

In 1908, Colonel Allen Allensworth founded a small town in the dry alkaline soil of California's Central Valley. A high-ranking U.S. Army officer and chaplain who had escaped from slavery, he envisioned a utopian community where African Americans could thrive....