author
Felix Paul Wierzbicki
1815–1860
An exiled Polish physician, soldier, and traveler, he wrote one of the earliest English-language books about Gold Rush California. His life moved from the failed 1830 uprising in Poland to the rough, fast-changing world of San Francisco.
1 Audiobook
California as it is, and as it may be : or, A guide to the gold region
by Felix Paul Wierzbicki
About the author
Felix Paul Wierzbicki was a Polish-born writer and doctor whose life crossed revolution, war, medicine, and early California history. Reliable sources describe him as a veteran of the November Uprising of 1830–1831 who later made his way to the United States, studied or completed medical training, and eventually settled in California.
He is best remembered for California as It Is and as It May Be, published in 1849 and widely noted as an early English-language guide to the Gold Rush region. That background gives his writing unusual energy: he was not just describing a place from afar, but writing as someone who had traveled widely and seen political upheaval and frontier life up close.
Wierzbicki died in San Francisco in 1860. Even in a short life, he left behind a vivid link between European exile literature and the first wave of writing about California.