CALIFORNIA HERE I COME

As the short introduction says `Rarely has one geographic region been thefocus of such intense visual interest as the state of California' Thiswell produced (and inexpensive) paperback manages to capture the feel ofthe new Eden. The pictorial material is mainly from the 1930s to 1950s andincludes a wide range of printed ephemera (a Sunkist orange wrapper to NBCRadio City, Hollywood, Studio Tour brochure for example) and I liked thenine examples of three-dimensional maps, unfortunately shown too small toreally appreciate the detail. All the favorites of the State have ashowing, the Giant Redwoods, Death Valley, Hollywood, Dude Ranches, SanFrancisco etc. The images are illustrative rather than photographic andthis is why I think the book works so well, you can see how commercialartists have been allowed portray California as big, bold and bright.