Publisher's Synopsis
This is a unique study, initiated by the Work Projects (later re-named 'Works Progress') Administration for Northern California in 1939. The editors gave as their main goal 'to prepare a comprehensive history...through a series of monographs covering its history from 1849 to the present'. A projected 14-volume set was never completed; but the 7 volumes which did appear, in mimeographed typescript, are a singularly valuable source of otherwise unavailable information, collated from widely scattered sources for the first time.Each volume includes bibliographies, appendices and index; musical illustrations and examples are plentiful. The numerous portraits are drawn from private albums and cannot be found elsewhere. The original volumes were offered by the WPA to 'specified public agencies such as schools, libraries, universities, and special institutions,' and are now made generally available for the first time. The AMS Press reprint edition of this work is a faithful reduced facsimile edition with the exception of 11 pages which have been printed in more legible format and at slight enlargement from the originals.
