Russian Hill Neighbors

Creating Community in the Russian Hill Neighborhood of San Francisco

Bibliography of Russian Hill, San Francisco and California History

Library of Elizabeth A. Wright

  • Atherton, Gertrude, 1946. My San Francisco: A Wayward Biography. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, NY.
  • Anthony, Gene and Jill Losson, 1981. The Great Cable Car Adventure Book. Presidio Press, Novato, CA.
  • Bakalinsky, Ada, 1995. Stairway Walks in San Francisco. Lexikos, San Francisco.
  • Beebe, Lucius and Charles Clegg, 1960. San Francisco’s Golden Era. Howell North, Berkeley, CA. [Great photos and pre-1906 Earthquake history.]
  • Blaisdell, Marilyn & Robert Ehler Blaisdell, 1985. San Francisciana: Photographs of the Cliff House. Marilyn Blaisdell (Publisher).
  • Blotnik, Elihu, 1983. Russian Hill. California Street Editions, San Francisco [Poetry].
  • Brady, Matthew, 1992. The Old Town: Real Life in Early San Francisco. Independent Books, San Francisco.[Brady write a ‘SF history column in The Independent each week.]
  • Bronson, William, 1959. The Earth Shook and the Sky Burned. Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY.
  • Broussard, Albaert S., 1993. Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900-1954. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
  • Caen, Herb, 1976. One Man’s San Francisco. Comstock Editions, Inc., Sausalito, NY
  • Carroll, Jon, 1993. Near Life Experiences: The Best of Jon Carroll. Chronicle Books, San Francisco.[Carroll is a columnist for the SF Chronicle.]
  • Chandler, Arthur, 1977. Old Tales of San Francisco. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, IA. [Good for pre-1906 history.]
  • Chinn, Thomas W., 1989. Bridging the Pacific: Chinatown and Its People. Chinese Historical Society, San Francisco.
  • Chronicle News Staff, 1989. The Quake of ’89. Chronicle Books, San Francisco.
  • Delehanty, Randolph, 1995. San Francisco: The Ultimate Guide. Chronicle Books, San Franciscos.
  • Delehanty, Randolph, Sexton, Richard, 1991. In The Victorian Style. Chronicle Book
  • Dickson, Samuel, 1968. Tales of San Francisco. Standord University Press, Sanford, CA.[Good for pre-1906 SF history and also for post-1906 personalities.]
  • Dillon, Richard, 1985. North Beach: The Italian Heart of San Francisco. Presidio Press, Novato, CA. [Great book about North Beach and some about Russian Hill personalities.]
  • The Discovery of San Francisco Bay: The Portola Expedition of 1769-1770, 1992. Edited by Peter Browning. Great West Books, Lafayette, CA [Diary of Ensign Miguel Constanso, engineer with the Portola expedition, in both Spanish and English (on opposing pages).]
  • Dolon, Bill and Karen Warner, 1985. San Francisco Trivia. 101 Productions, San Francisco.
  • Drescher, Timothy W., 1991. San Francisco Murals: Community Creates Its Muse, 1914-1990. Pogo Press, Inc.
  • Ferlinghetti, Lawrence and Nancy J. Peters, 1980. Literary San Francisco: A Pictorial History from Its Beginnings to the Present Day. City Lights Books and Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco.
  • Gentry, Curt, 1964. The Madams of San Francisco. New American Library, NY.
  • Gentry, Curt, 1968. The Last Days of the Late Great State of California. Ballantine Books, NY.
  • Hansen, Gladys, 1980. San Francisco Almanac. Presidio Press, San Rafael, CA
  • Hansen, Gladys and Emmet Condon, 1989, Denial of Disaster, Cameron and Company, San Francisco, CA.
  • Hockaday, Joan & Henry Bowles, 1988. The Gardens of San Francisco. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
  • Hynding, Alan A., 1976. California Historymakers. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, IA. [Brief biographies of important historical personages from both northern and southern California.]
  • Kahn, Edgar M., 1940. Cable Car Days in San Francisco. Stanford University Press, Stanford University, CA.
  • Kostura, William, 1997. Russian Hill: The Summit 1853-1906: Volume I of a Neighborhood History. Aerie Publications, San Francisco, CA [Very good on history of property and how it developed at the top of Russian Hill, and great source of resources. There are supposed to be four volumes to follow regarding the rest of Russian Hill.]
  • Margolin, Malcolm, 1978. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Heydey Books, Berkeley, CA.
  • Martin, Mildred Crowl, 1977. Chinatown’s Angry Angel: The Story of Donaldina Cameron. Pacific Books, Publishers, Palo Alto, CA. [Biography of Cameron and how she was instrumental in bringing an end to slavery in Chinatown.]
  • McGrew, Patrick and Brenner, Marion, 1991. Landmarks of San Francisco. Henry Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York.
  • Moudon, Anne Vernez, 1989. Built for Change, Neighborhood Architecture in San Francisco. The MIT Press.
  • Muscaline, Dorothy, 1975. Old San Francisco: The Biography of A City from Early Days to the Earthquake. GP Putnam’s Sons, NY.
  • Narell, Irena, 1981. Our City: The Jews of San Francisco. Howell-North Books, San Diego, CA. [Excellent book about Jewish families who settled in SF and are still influential.]
  • 1990 California Almanac, 4th ed. James S. Fay, Sr. Ed. Pacific Data Resources.
  • Pickelhaupt, Bill, 1995. Club Rowing on San Francisco Bay, 1869-1939 Featuring The South End Rowing Club. Bill Pickelhaupt, San Francisco, CA. [South End Rowing Club is still in existence down at the waterfront in the neighborhood of the Maritime Museum.]
  • Pickelhaupt, Bill, 1996. Shanghaied in San Francisco. Flyblister Press, San Francisco, CA.
  • Richards, Rand, 1991. Historic San Francisco: A Concise History and Guide. Heritage House Publishers, San Francisco. Margolin, Malcolm, 1978. The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco – Monterey Bay Area. Heyday Books, Berkelely, CA
  • Robinson, Judith, 1991. The Hearsts: An American Dynasty. Avon Books, NY [Since Hearsts owned major property on Russian Hill and lived on the hill, good source for Russian Hill history as well as for history of famous SF family … newspaper publishers.]
  • Robinson, Judith, 1994. “You’re in Your Mother’s Arms”: The Life and Legacy of Congressman Phil Burton. Judith Robinson (Publisher), San Francisco, CA. [Autobiography of Phil Burton. Good modern history of SF.]
  • San Francisco Chronicle, 1959. The Hills of San Francisco. The Chronicle Publishing Co., San Francisco.
  • San Francisco Memoirs 1835-1851: Eyewitness accounts of the birth of a city, 1994. Compiled and introduced by Malcolm E. Barker. Londonborn Publications, San Francisco, CA. [Very good history of the beginnings of SF.]
  • San Francisco Memoirs 1852-1899: The ripening years, 1996. Compiled and introduced by Malcolm E. Barker. Londonborn Publications, San Francsico, CA. [Very good history of continuing development of early SF.]
  • San Francisco Stories, 1990. John Miller, ed. Chronicle Books., San Francisco.
  • Savellli, Ben A., 1996. My Silent Partner. Published by Ben A Savelli, San Francisco, CA. [First person account of growing up in San Francisco, starting in the Depression years. Very folksy. Attended Galileo HS, parents owned grocery at Polk & Greenwich.]
  • Schwartzenberg, Susan, 1996. Cento: A Market Street Journal. The San Francisco Art Commission, San Francisco, CA [Pictorial essay of Market Street.]
  • Sexton, Richard, 1989, The Cottage Book, Chronicle Books, San Francisco.
  • Shilts, Randy, 1987. And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic. Quality Paperback Book Club, NY. [History of the AIDS Epidemic.]
  • Silver, Mae, 1992. Rancho San Miguel. Stanyan Printing, San Francisco.
  • Stanford, Sally, 1966. The Lady of the House: The Autobiography of Sally Stanford. Comstock Editions, Inc., Sausalito, CA. [The ‘Verdier Mansion’ at 1001 Vallejo is rumored to have been one of Sally Stanford’s ‘houses’ during World War II.]
  • Sutherland, Monica, 1959. The Damndest Finest Ruins. Ballantine Books, Inc., NY.
  • Tchen, John Kuo Wei, 1984. Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown. Dover Publications, Inc., NY. [Great Chinatown photos.]
  • Thollander, Earl, 1987. San Francisco: 30 Walking Tours from The Embarcadero to the Golden Gate. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. Publishers, NY.
  • The Western Gate: A San Francisco Reader, 1952. Joseph Henry Jackson, ed. Farrar, Straus & Young, NY. [Great collection of excerpts from newspapers, novels, etc. all having to do with SF history.]
  • Wollenberg, Charles, 1985. Golden Gate Metropolis: Perspectives on Bay Area History. Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
  • Wong, Jade Snow, 1945. Fifth Chinese Daughter. University of Washington Press, Seattle, WA. [Personal account of growing up Chinese in SF and in America. Author is accomplished artisan, creating beautiful enameled copper bowls, a travel agent, and owns a gift shop on Polk Street near Filbert.]
  • Woodbridge, Sally B., John M. Woodbridge, & Chuck Byrne, 1992. San Francisco Architecture. Chronicle Books, San Francisco. [Good reference for types of architecture with photographs indicating where buildings are located.]