1925. Days of '49 is a super adventure; it ranks as one of the fine period novels of American literature. Against a background of teeming California in the days of gold, he moves a complicated cast of characters in gunplay and heart-play. Proud Spaniards, uncouth roughnecks with gentle hearts, smooth gentlemen with blackened hearts, ladies of vice and virtue are meshed in high adventure as the story of the early dash for treasure unfolds. An excellent story, but also the only fully documented, accurate account of the great California gold rush, as Mr. Young explains in a readable appendix, in which he points the real characters and events on which he has based his story.