Name Felix Wierzbicki Role Writer | Died December 26, 1860 | |
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Books California as it is & as it may be | ||
Felix Wierzbicki (Polish: Feliks Paweł Wierzbicki; 1 January 1815, Czerniawka, Volhynia, Poland, now Chernyavka, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine — 26 December 1860, San Francisco) was a Polish-American veteran of the November 1830 Uprising, physician, soldier, traveler, and writer.
In 1849, Wierzbicki published in San Francisco the first English-language book printed in California, California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region. The book is an "unvarnished" description of the culture, peoples, and climate of the area at that time. Wierzbicki described prospective settlers, and included a survey of agriculture and hints on gold mining.
Wierzbicki died on 26 December 1860 in San Francisco and was buried there in the Laurel Hill Cemetery. His remains were later reinterred at the San Francisco National Cemetery.