The morning after the Gold Rush: Prentice Mulford and the American Dream (California)

The 1849 Gold Rush focused the world's imagination upon California, and a small group of San Francisco journalists in the 1860's established its role in Western American literature. Of these, only Prentice Mulford had years of experience as an actual pioneer and prospector; thwarted youthful encounters with 19th century configurations of the American Dream—status, land, the whaling industry and gold—had positioned him as a bemused outsider, uniquely qualified to observe California's tension between possibility and disillusionment. While others responded to the aftermath of the Civil War by constructing the Gold Rush in terms of myth and infinite possibility, he steadfastly functioned as a reliable witness to its turbulent human history. This dissertation draws upon 238 of Mulford's works extracted from microfilm, as well as more readily accessible material and a reconstruction of his life, to urge a reassessment of his contribution.; Chapter One locates Mulford in terms of his era and the stage of development of Gold Rush literature at the time he entered it. Chapter Two examines his Long Island origins and the dwindling fortunes of his once-prominent family; Chapter Three recounts his two years at sea, as the whaling industry entered recession. The fourth and fifth chapters, respectively, trace his experience of the California gold fields and his rise as a “county celebrity,” functioning as a comic lecturer and writer, and his brief attempt at a political career. Chapter Six reviews his work as a San Francisco journalist and his transition from writing rough, nihilistic burlesques directed at the mining camps themselves to creating keenly observant studies of the camps' decline, intended for a broader audience. Chapter Seven examines his life after leaving San Francisco, his marriage and embrace of inspirational philosophy, with the attendant series of misconceptions which arose to obscure his legacy.; Prentice Mulford provides a valuable antidote to myth, reflecting the human realities and comic sensibilities of a multinational community of strangers at the vortex of a uniquely American phenomenon.