Just a tiny bit more on the first work of fiction published in California.  Entewa, the Mountain Bird is mentioned briefly in Print in a Wild Land, by John Myers Myers (and no, that is not a typo — that was his name), a book about the world of Western newspapers, published in 1967.

Another bandit, the semi-fictional Joaquin Murrieta

At the time the one and only copy of the book was owned by the estate of a famous collector of Western Americana named Thomas W. Streeter. Tied up in the estate, it was not available for viewing. All Mr. Myers Myers could say about it was that it was a paperback of 119 pages. Quoting Streeter’s catalog, he says

This is not only the first novel printed in California, but the scene is laid in the gold regions in 1849; and it is a first-class story with the villain of the piece a bandit whose crimes were ascribed to the Indians.

As they so often were.

I really do have to see if I can get access to the microfilm for this book.