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In The Footprints Of The Padres

Charles Warren Stoddard

The American Charles Warren Stoddard (1843–1909) wrote travel books quite popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This third enlarged edition (1912) of his book more about California in general, in historia, and in memoria rather than her missions contains essays not included in the previous editions. “Charles Warren Stoddard was possessed of unique literary gifts that were all his own. These gifts shine out in the pages of this book. Here we find that mustang humor of his forever kicking its silver heels with the most upsetting suddenness into the honeyed sweetness of his flowing poetry. Here, too, we find that gift of word-painting which makes all his writings a brilliant gallery of rich-hued and soft-lighted wonder…. But no, the old California that Stoddard loved lives on, and will, because he caught and preserved its spirit and its coloring, its light and life and music. As the redwood thicket holds the sunlight, so do Stoddard's words keep bright and living, though viewed through a mist of tears, the California of other days.” ( Book Introduction and David Wales)