Very rare gilded cover, Bonanza Mines and the Bonanza Kings of California by S P Dewey, Their Five Years Reign. 1879. 87pp. Spine wear, repaired front inner board at spine, some foxing. _x005F Second edition. A biased account of the stock market manipulations and other financial machinations of the owners and principal shareholders of the Consolidated Virginia and California Mining Companies. Presentation copy from the author to "Reverend W. A. Scott (of the Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco) from the Author's Complements. Reverend Scott organized an expedition in late 1855 to Yosemite after Hutching's famed trip earlier that year. An outspoken critic, he was hanged in effigy when he spoke out against Vigilantism after the Committee of Vigilance of 1856 hung S. F. Supervisor Casey for the assignation of James King of William. Graff 1074. Cowan p. 168. The reader gets behind the scenes in the businesses of the celebrated Consolidated Virginia and California Bonanzas. This vicious attack was prepared by Alfred Wheeler at the instigation of S. P. Dewey, whose silence, it is alleged, the "Bonanza Kings" refused to purchase. Paher Nevada 476: "A rare book which was expanded in its second edition, 1880. These 'kings' reigned for five years, making fortune in Nevada mining." Howes D302. Streeter Sate 3459 (first edition): "Dewey is perhaps chargeable with bias, for he sold a dividend on the mines short and then the 'bonanza' crowd Flood, Mackay and Fair had the regular dividend paid, much of Dewey's wrath and loss. At any rate, this is one side of the story of the famous Consolidated Virginia Mine which made millionaires out of Mackay, Fair, et al." Virginia City Nevada 1879