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University of California Press, Published 1948. Hardcover, 291 pp.; 23 cm; First Edition (1948, with no statement of later printing); illustrated with black-and-white photographs, rancho sketch maps, and facsimile documents; chapter vignettes by Irene Robinson.
In Very Good condition, no dust jacket. Pale green-gray cloth boards with a bear stamped in red on the front board and red lettering on the spine, with mild surface and edge wear, bumping to the corners, and some soiling to the rear board and spine. Some color loss and nicking to the cloth at the head and foot of the spine. Binding tight. Pages mildly toned. A quarter-inch pale red line in the margin of one page in the bibliography. Otherwise unmarked. Robinson traces how land title in California passed from Indian occupancy through Spanish and Mexican grant, mission secularization and the ranchos, to the United States Land Commission, squatter conflict, railroad grants, land scrip, and homesteading. He worked as a title researcher and later vice-president at Title Insurance and Trust Company in Los Angeles and drew on the company's historical collection, which accounts for the facsimile deeds, patents, and rancho sketch maps reproduced throughout. Three photographs by Edward Weston appear on pages 120 and 121: Bodega Coast, Owens Valley, and Tomato Field, Monterey County. Issued in the Chronicles of California, a series launched by the University for the state centennial under the general editorship of Herbert E. Bolton and John W. Caughey. Contents: Whose California?; First Owners; Missionary Empire; Four Square Leagues; First Rancheros; Gifts of Land; Chain of Title; The Land Commission; Shotgun Titles; Titles in El Dorado; Land Grants to Railroads; Land for Settlers; Land Scrip; The State as Owner; Buying and Selling California; Insurance of Title; Title Story of Two Cities; Appendix I: Boundary and Property Provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; Appendix II: Act for the Admission of California into the Union; Appendix III: Act to Ascertain and Settle the Private Land Claims in the State of California; Bibliography; Index.