author

Southern Pacific Company. Passenger Department

Behind this name is not a single writer but the publishing arm of a major railroad, which turned travel promotion into lively reading. Its books and magazines sold the romance of Western rail journeys with maps, scenery, and practical advice for would-be passengers.

2 Audiobooks

The Road of a Thousand Wonders The Coast Line—Shasta Route of the Southern Pacific Company from Los Angeles Through San Francisco, to Portland, a Journey of Over One Thousand Three Hundred Miles

The Road of a Thousand Wonders The Coast Line—Shasta Route of the Southern Pacific Company from Los Angeles Through San Francisco, to Portland, a Journey of Over One Thousand Three Hundred Miles

by Southern Pacific Company. Passenger Department

The Overland Route to the Road of a Thousand Wonders The Route of the Union Pacific & The Southern Pacific Railroads from Omaha to San Francisco, a Journey of Eighteen Hundred Miles Where Once the Bison & the Indian Reigned

The Overland Route to the Road of a Thousand Wonders The Route of the Union Pacific & The Southern Pacific Railroads from Omaha to San Francisco, a Journey of Eighteen Hundred Miles Where Once the Bison & the Indian Reigned

by Union Pacific Railroad Company. Passenger Department, Southern Pacific Company. Passenger Department

About the author

Southern Pacific Company. Passenger Department was the passenger and publicity division of the Southern Pacific railroad system, not an individual author. Project Gutenberg lists works under this name, including travel-promotional titles such as The Road of a Thousand Wonders, and archive records also show the department as publisher or issuing body for Sunset in the late 1890s.

That makes this “author” interesting in its own right: it represents a company voice from the great age of American rail travel. Publications issued by the department were designed to attract riders, promote routes through California and the West, and package transportation as part guidebook, part advertisement, and part armchair travel writing.

Because this is a corporate department rather than a person, I could not confirm a suitable portrait of a specific human author. A company logo exists on reference pages about Southern Pacific, but that is not the same thing as an author portrait, so I have left the profile image empty.