J. Smeaton Chase

Octavo, original illustrated blue cloth, frontispiece with tissue guard, illustrated with map and 16 photographs by the author & Pillsbury Picture Co. Chase spent his lifetime journeying throughout the untouched wilderness of the mountains of California. He became a passionate advocate for environmental preservation, particularly that of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains. Chase became an integral part of California literature and was revered for his poignant descriptions of the California landscape, flora, and fauna.

Joseph Smeaton Chase was born in London in 1864, and came to California at the age of 26. According to Lawrence Clark Powell in California Classics, Smeaton's Yosemite Trails is "a blend of guide book and nature essays, based on three journeys through the Sierra Nevada roundabout Yosemite. Yosemite Trails takes its place on the Shelf of Sierra Nevada literature not too far below Muir's The Mountains of California, to which Chase pays tribute."… (altro)