Felix Paul Wierzbicki

After taking part in the Polish November Uprising of 1830, he left his homeland and eventually made his way to the United States. He earned a medical degree, practiced medicine in Rhode Island, and later joined the army during the Mexican-American War, which brought him to California.

Once in the West, he moved between medicine, military life, travel, and gold-country experience. He spent time around the mining region and later settled in San Francisco, where he lived for the rest of his life.

He is best remembered for California as It Is and as It May Be (1849), widely noted as the first English-language book printed in California. Written at the height of the Gold Rush, it offered practical guidance and vivid observations for readers eager to understand the new state and its opportunities.