Quarterdeck and Saddlehorn: The Story of Edward P. Beale, 1822-1893 (INSCRIBED by Carl Briggs) by Briggs, Carl and Clyde Francis Trudell - 1983

Glendale CA: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1983. First edition. INSCRIBED "To *** and *** with kindest regards. Carl Briggs). 8vo. 304 pp. Bibliography; Index.Portraits. Red cloth with gilt lettering to spine; in publishers toned and stained dustjacket. The book is in near fine condition (light spotting to page edges). Western Frontiersmen Series XX. Winner of the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for Best Western Non-Fiction Book of 1983 and one of 1027 copies. "Beale was a major figure in the history of the West, particularly California..." (Clark and Brunet 28). "He was a naval officer, military general, explorer, frontiersman, Indian affairs superintendent, California rancher, diplomat, and friend of Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody and Ulysses S. Grant. He fought in the Mexican-American War, emerging as a hero of the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846. He achieved national fame in 1848 in carrying to the east the first gold samples from California, contributing to the gold rush. In the late 1850s, Beale surveyed and built Beale's Wagon Road, which many settlers used to move to the West, and which became part of Route 66 and the route for the Transcontinental railroad. As California's first Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Beale helped charter a humanitarian policy towards Native Americans in the 1850s. He also founded the Tejon Ranch, the largest private landholding in California, and became a millionaire several times over. He received appointments from five U.S. presidents: Andrew Jackson appointed him to the Philadelphia Naval School, Millard Fillmore appointed him Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada, James Buchanan appointed him to survey a wagon road from New Mexico to California, Abraham Lincoln appointed him Surveyor General of California and Nevada, and Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Ambassador to Austria-Hungary.