About the Author

Harlan Hague taught history at San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, California. He is the author of Road to California and currently is editing a collection of Larkin letters.

David J Langum is Professor of Law in the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama. He is the author of Crossing Over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act and Law and Community on the Mexican California Frontier (University of Oklahoma Press).

Reviews

Long before the Beach Boys, there was the ``California Dream,'' and New England-born Larkin was among the first to pursue it. In 1832, as a young man without a formal education, Larkin traveled to desolate Mexican California in search of his fortune. First as a merchant in Monterey and later as a land speculator who worked largely in booming San Francisco, he became extremely wealthy before his death in 1858. Depicted as a patriot and ``gentle imperialist'' in this tedious bigoraphy that lacks analysis and color, Larkin served as U.S. consul and secret agent during the ticklish Americanization process in 1846-1847. Hague and Langum are the authors of, respectively, Road to California and Law and Community on the Mexican California Frontier. (Dec.)