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California Historical Fiction 
Historical Fiction Set in California
California Historical Fiction
1906
by D'Alessandro, James
Against the raging backdrop of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire, this gripping tale of greed, murder, and love, drawn from recent discoveries, is told by a young reporter who vividly brings to life this Victorian-era city that waged two wars--one against nature's forces, and the other against corrupt politicians.
Angle of Repose
by Stegner, Wallace
A classic saga that traces the fortunes of four generations of one family as they attempt to build a life for themselves in the American West.
Bear Flag
by Holland, Cecelia
Widowed on the arduous trek west, proud Cat Reilly takes whatever work she can find in Suttor's Fort and mixes with such types as Kit Carson before falling in love and becoming involved in the battle for California's independence.
Biograph Girl
by Mann, William J.
Blending fact and real-life characters with fiction, this historical novel re-creates the life of Florence Lawrence, an early twentieth-century actress and vaudevillian who by 1910 was the "Biograph Girl," the world's first movie star.
Blossom Festival
by Coates, Lawrence
This richly panoramic chronicle of rural life in the Santa Clara Valley during the decades before World War II depicts the complex relationships between parents and children in the changing context of a rich region leaving behind its agricultural past to become Silicon Valley.
Bohemian Murders
by Day, Dianne
Accepting a temporary position as a lighthouse keeper in the bohemian beach community of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Fremont Jones tries to find the identity of a dead woman who washes up on shore.
Bone
by Ng, Fae Myenne
Two generations of San Francisco's Leong family live in uneasy tension as they try to fathom the source of their family's sorrow.
Bright Web in the Darkness
by Saxton, Alexander
Set in the San Francisco Bay area during World War II, Bright Web in the Darkness is a novel that illuminates the role of women workers during the war and the efforts of African Americans to achieve regular standing as union members. The central characters are two young women - one black, one white - who become friends in a welding class and qualify for the shipyard jobs opening to women as male workers are drafted.
Calico Palace
by Bristow, Gwen
California in the year before the Gold Rush provides the setting for this novel which centers on the colorful characters who journeyed west seeking adventure or refuge.
California Dons
by Milliken, Ralph
A novel based on the personal recollections of Señor Don Estolano Larios, tells of the childhood and young manhood of a Mexican in California in the mission days.
California Gold
by Jakes, John
In 1886, eighteen-year-old James Macklin Chance journeys from Pennsylvania to California to make a new life for himself, finding love, power, and fortune in Southern California.
Californians
by Atherton, Gertrude
Depicts life in California at the turn of the century as seen through the experienes of the shy, plain daughter of a Spanish grandee and the vivacious, beautiful daughter of a San Francisco entrepreneur.
Californios
by L'Amour, Louis
The Mulkerin Brothers, in a desperate attempt to settle the debt on their ranch, follow an Indian mystic to California in search of gold, with a gang of greedy gunfighters riding hard on their heels.
China Boy
by Lee, Gus
An American-born son of an aristocratic Chinese family struggles with the uncertainties of growing up torn between two cultures in a tough San Francisco neighborhood during the 1950s.
Climate of the Country
by Mueller, Marnie
The stories of the Japanese Americans interred at the Tule Lake Relocation Center during the second World War are told by Denton Jordan, a conscientious objector who both lives and works in the camp.
Daughter of Fortune
by Allende, Isabel
Raised in the British colony of Valparaiso, Chile, after being abandoned as a baby, a pregnant Eliza follows her lover, Joaquin Andieta, to California at the height of the Gold Rush and finds adventure and adversity on her road to independence and love.
Day of the Locust
by West, Nathanael
Hollywood of the 1930s and the collapse of the American dream are seen through the eyes of a refined, educated set designer and an inarticulate bookkeeper from Iowa.
Down to a Soundless Sea
by Steinbeck, Thomas
Drawing on the culture and history of northern California, a collection of short fiction captures a world in which nature has a profound influence on the sailors, immigrants, ranchers, and others who dwell on the edge of a frontier.
Eye of the Bear
by West, Naida
A compelling tale of pre-gold-rush California, depicting the conflict among the Native Americans, the Spanish/Mexican secular rulers, and the religious zealots of the early California Missions.
Ghost Woman
by Thornton, Lawrence
Converted to Catholicism by a well-meaning priest, native American woman Soledad settles into a white community in Santa Barbara, California, in the 1800s and encounters friendship and betrayal.
Gold
by White, Stewart E.
Four men form a partnership as they come through the Panama Canal on their way to the Gold Rush, and they support each other through their gains and their losses in the fields.
Grapes of Wrath
by Steinbeck, John
Depicts the hardships and suffering endured by the Joads as they journey from Oklahoma to California during the Depression.
Gringo Amigo
by McCarthy, Gary
In the violent days following the California gold rush, Irish immigrant Michael Callahan must go to the aid of Joaquin Murieta, the Robin Hood of California who saved his life years before and who is the target of bounty hunters.
Hollywood: A Novel of America in the 1920s
by Vidal, Gore
Follows the career of Caroline Sanford, a brilliant and beautiful newspaper publisher who leaves Washington to become a Hollywood producer and movie star.
Human Comedy
by Saroyan, William
Members of the Macauley family find their peaceful existence in rural California greatly changed in the early months of 1942.
Immigrants
by Fast, Howard
A multigeneration saga of California focuses on the life of Dan Lavette who, born in a railroad worker's boxcar, becomes a self-made shipping tycoon.
Immortal Wife
by Stone, Irving
Chronicles the indestructible marriage of John C. Fremont and his strong willed wife, who helped aid him in his great accomplishments.
Indian Lover
by Murphy, Garth
Journeying to 1840s California, young Bill Marshall witnesses the tragic experiences of the California Indians and their treatment by Americans after Spain gives control of the territory to Mexico.
Inland Sea
by Varni, Steven
Deciding to get a new perspective on life, Vincent Torno moves away from his protective Italian American family in California to seek a new life in the Midwest in order to see the world through his own eyes.
Kitchen God's Wife
by Tan, Amy
A Chinese immigrant who is convinced she is dying threatens to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of everybody's hidden truths, thus prompting a series of comic misunderstandings.
Legend of Fire Horse Woman
by Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki
Traces the life of Sayo, born under the disastrous sign of the Fire Horse, who comes to America for an arranged marriage and years later is imprisoned with her family in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.
Love Awakens the Heart
by Wick, Lori
A family saga about a missionary family living in San Francisco in the 1870s.
Luck of Roaring Camp
by Harte, Bret
In a California gold prospecting camp, Cherokee Sal gives birth to a baby boy, but the mother dies in childbirth. The men of Roaring Camp must raise the child themselves. Believing the child to be a good luck charm, the miners christen the boy Thomas Luck, and then decide to refine their behavior and refrain from gambling and fighting.
Mendocino
by Greber, Judith
The lives, fortunes, triumphs, tragedies, dreams, and loves of seven generations of a Mendocino, California, family, is set against the growth and changes of their hometown, from 1845 to the present.
Octopus
by Norris, Frank
Nineteenth-century California wheat farmers wage a fierce battle against the rapid expansion into their fertile lands of the nation's railroads.
Picture Bride
by Uchida, Yoshiko
Hana travels to America to escape the arranged marriages her sisters experienced in pre-World War II Japan, but the young businessman to whom she has corresponded turns out to be a middle-aged man who exaggerated his success.
Ramona
by Jackson, Helen Hunt
The absurdity and tragedy of prejudice is illustrated in this classic tale, set in Old California, of Ramona, a young Spanish-American orphan girl and her love for the Native American Alessandro.
Santa Cat: Behind the Lace Curtains, 1856-1926
by Kock, Margaret
Santa Cat, located at one end of Monterey Bay, also has rum-running, adultery, fraternal orders that would rather play cards than march, houses of ill-repute, sexism and a variety of other shenanigans. In stories more truthful than the history books, Margaret Koch gently and artfully shows us what was really going on behind those lace curtains, as this collection of characters tries to become a real community.
Sierra: A Novel of the California Gold Rush
by Wheeler, Richard S.
Ulysses McQueen leaves his pregnant wife to search for gold at the same time ex-soldier Stephen Jarvis begins his journey to the West coast, and the paths of the two finally cross in California, by which time they are both changed men.
Sister Noon
by Fowler, Karen Joy
A mystery set during San Francisco's Gilded Age chronicles Lizzie Hayes's rebellious odyssey away from the pretensions of the city's social elite and her journey toward liberation and passion, with the help of Mary Ellen Pleasant.
Snow Mountain Passage
by Houston, James D.
Depicts the hardships, tragedy, and devastating starvation that confronted the Donner party, which became trapped by winter snows in the Sierra Nevadas, through the eyes of James Frazier Reed and his eight-year-old daughter, Patty.
Sorensen Hill
by Sharp, Irene L.
"A true story about the only miner who never packed a gun."
Thousand Pieces of Gold
by McCunn, Ruthanne Lum
Chronicles the life of Lalu Nathoy, a young Chinese girl--sold as a slave and brought to America--where, later, as Polly Bemis she struggles and survives as a pioneer in the West.
When the Emperor Was Divine
by Otsuka, Julie
A story told from five different points of view, chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment camps.