Last Bonanza Kings: The Bourns of San Francisco

Rating:
Summary: Editing would help.
Review: In his biography of William Bourn I and William Bourn II the author consistantly drifts from the topic.

A prime example is even though William Bourn is in Monte Carlo during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Egan adds to his description of the events in San Francisco the following sentence: "Even after the devestation of an earthquake that would have measured somewhere about 8.25 on the Richter Scale-to be developed in later years by Charles F. Richter of the Claifornia Institute of Technology..."

Unfortunately this quote is not exceptional. If the author stayed with his topic the information Eagan unearthed on this important California family would require half the pages.

Ferol Egan's "Last Bonanza Kings" is a book sorely in need of an editor.