Joshua Norton: American Emperor and Protector of Mexico

by Daniel Alef

Overview

California and New York have had their share of titans, moguls and tycoons, but only California can boast of having been the home of an emperor: Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. This improbable story of Joshua Norton has captured the hearts and minds of people such as Mark Twain, David Belasco, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Herbert Asbury; Norton even made a brief appearance on Star Trek! Some called Norton a fraud, a wealthy man who was a miser; others hailed him as a visionary. His acceptance in San Francisco--he even issued his own scrip--and his prescient proclamations, dissolving Congress prior to the Civil War, calling for an end to political corruption and fraud, or the construction of a bridge across San Francisco Bay, could not have occurred in any city but San Francisco or in any other era. Award-winning author Daniel Alef tells the strange and fascinating true story of America's only emperor. [1,741-word Titans of Fortune article]

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608042166
Publisher:	Titans of Fortune Publishing
Publication date:	03/04/2009
Series:	Titans of Fortune
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	645 KB

About the Author

Daniel Alef has written many legal articles, one law book, one historical anthology, Centennial Stories, and authored the award-winning historical novel, Pale Truth (MaxIt Publishing, 2000). Foreword Magazine named Pale Truth book of the year for general fiction in 2001 and the novel received many outstanding reviews including ones from Publishers Weekly and the American Library Association's Booklist. A sequel to Pale Truth, currently entitled Measured Swords, has just been completed.

Read an Excerpt

California and New York have had their share of titans, moguls and kings, but only California can boast of having been the home of an emperor: Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
The reign of Emperor Norton began in San Francisco with little fanfare on Sept. 17, 1859, the day after Sen. David Broderick died in a duel with Justice David S. Terry. It was a simple notice published in the San Francisco Bulletin: "I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months part of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States." His sovereignty continued unchallenged and uninterrupted for nearly 21 years.
The improbable story of California's emperor begins Jan. 17, 1811 in Priors Lee, Shropshire, England, where Joshua Abraham Norton was born. Nine years later, his parents immigrated to South Africa where they were among the first British settlers. Little is known about Norton's early life, but either he or his family was financially well-settled, because on April 23, 1849, Norton arrived in San Francisco with $40,000 in his pocket, making him potentially one of the wealthiest men in the city, such as it was.