Capital Books Press is an experiment from Capital Books On K. We opened the store in 2019, survived and thrived through Covid and the George Floyd protests. In 2025 I was chatting with an old friend, William Burg – author of several books on Sacramento – and he mentioned that Brett Harte had written the first LGBT short story written during the California Gold Rush. In looking for a good collection containing that story, I fell down a deep rabbit hole of early California literature that was either no longer in print, or only in print through OCR scans of old books that still contained the original fonts, dirt on pages and other flaws. So in order to bring back some of these books in a format we could sell, Capital Books Press was born.
Our first two books were reprints of the original Donner Party memoirs from two of the survivors, and a journalist that moved to California in 1849 and was obsessed with the story. The editions come full circle when Eliza Donner interviews C.F. McGlashan on his deathbed about his sensationalism of the cannibalism and the failure of the Donner brothers in the trip. Two volumes, three perspectives of the same events written contemporaneously. These three stores are the original documents that anyone writing about or researching the Donner Party turn to first. We updated all of them, modern fonts and layouts, footnotes, extensive afterward content including classroom activities and book club questions. As new versions of both books, I’m very proud of them.
Next we did the same treatment with Mark Twain’s letters from the Sandwich Islands. In 1866, the Sacramento Union sent Twain to Hawaii to write about what it was like, and how it was an essential part of trade with California. That trip is where Twain really became the writer people think of. He developed his voice and writing style later seen in Innocents Abroad, was the reporter on the scene when the survivors of the Hornet disaster were rescued and brought to Hawaii. This edition as well is completely updated and redesigned. We keep the language as it was originally, but added footnotes, a glossary, timelines, classroom activities and book club questions.
Next up – a short story collection from the Gold Rush and the collection of the Dame Shirley letters. And those two volumes will be more connected that just set in the same timeframe. This is overlap between what Dame Shirley wrote and what was used by both Brett Harte and Mark Twain. Did the two of them use her writings to create new stories that cemented their reputations, or was it just coincidence of timing? I’ll point it out, you decide.