California Gold

James Macklin Chance leaves poverty in Pennsylvania for California long after the first Gold Rush, convinced that the state still offers a path to wealth and power. His ambition carries him through railroads, agriculture, journalism, oil and land development, where every opportunity is controlled by people prepared to use money, influence and violence.

The novel follows California from the late nineteenth century into the Progressive Era, including railroad domination, the growth of Los Angeles, the San Francisco earthquake and the beginnings of the film industry. Chance encounters figures such as Leland Stanford, William Randolph Hearst, Ambrose Bierce and Theodore Roosevelt as his pursuit of success repeatedly tests the people he loves and the principles he claims to possess.