Title: Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area

Author: Sylvia Linsteadt

Publisher: Heyday 2017

Genre: Nonfiction - History

Pages: 224

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: I Love Libraries

In this coffee table book of luminous essays accompanied by an array of images, award-winning writer Sylvia Linsteadt brings to life the many microcosms that once flourished in the San Francisco Bay Area: from the farthest reach of the Russian Empire at Fort Ross, to acres upon acres of apricot blossoms in what is now known as Silicon Valley, to the Coney Island of the West on the Alameda shoreline, to San Francisco's bohemian Barbary Coast. For every lost world, Linsteadt reconstructs the setting in lyrical prose supported by extensive research into each epoch. Vintage photographs, maps, and paintings combined with neo-Victorian design accentuate the words, immersing us fully in the nuances of each reality, whether mining quicksilver at New Almaden or shopping underneath the rotunda of the palatial Emporium. A book both dazzlingly beautiful and sensitive to the complexities of portraying bygone eras, Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Areacelebrates the ephemeral and, in reminding us of the many moments of humanity threaded through the past, makes our understanding of the present moment that much more rooted.

Another interesting collection of local history essays. I loved that this one covered different material than the Lost San Francisco book. This volume included 25 essays from around the Bay Area. I especially loved the essay about Neptune Beach that used to exist on Alameda. Fascinating subject material! And of course, there were a ton of great photographs included. 

Next up on the TBR pile: