A California History Fulfilled in Fiction

THE INDIAN LOVER, a novel by Garth Murphy

 

The Indian LoverPeriod IllustrationsAnother ChapterReviews/AfterwardAcknowledgments

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California Natives on the Colorado River.
Stone engraving by Arthur Schott, 1848.
Overhead Golden Eagles and Condors soared,
looming large as man.

CONTACT:
author: garth@theindianlover.com
agent: Lynn@janklow.com
pub: rebecca.j.davis@simonandschuster.com


California was a magical world in the 1840's, and San Diego was its best-sheltered, richest port, center of a lucrative trade in cowhides, tallow and furs, and the main supply base for whalers working the Baja California breeding lagoons. For a decade, three contrasting cultures came together and clashed in this fertile land, vying for control of millions of acres of oak-park pasture that extended for a two-day's ride in every direction from the deepwater port. Spanish/Mexicans fought to hang on to vast haciendas recently usurped from the missions and Indians; Yankee adventurers dreamed of Texas-sized ranches in a California annexed to the United States; and the populous native tribes, fragmented and frustrated but still powerful, determined to hold on to their land and win back what they had lost to the invaders.
'The Indian Lover' recounts the classic American tale of William Marshall, a young New England ship deserter, who by force of personality and action will become friend or foe to nearly every resident of the future county of San Diego - Mexican, American and Indian. Based on the true story of his seven year sojourn in California, with the missing shards of history hand-painted in blood, sensation and emotion, especially through the two courageous women who came to love him.

READINGS, BOOKSIGNINGS by request. Contact author.

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San Diego 1850. Twenty adobe houses. The river flowed nearby, into the harbor.

Illustrations - A Picture Story

San Diego, California in the 1840's and 50's. Paintings, drawings, etchings, woodcuts and stone engravings by contemporary artists.

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Hide warehouses on the bay at La Playa, Point Loma in the background.

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California grizzly bear on his way to the bullfight.