TWHP


George Derby, 1823-1861   

California's first great humorist, George Derby is said to have greatly influenced Mark Twain's writing style with his own tongue-in-cheek musings. An Army engineer sent West to survey the land and build infrastructure, his penchant for practical jokes made him one of the most loved and despised men at his various postings. He got to know well Sonoma, Benicia and Napa before San Francisco had the name or much of a city, and a later mission to San Diego made him an old hand there as well. Writing under the pen name "Squibob," Derby produced amusing little sketches of the people and places he encountered, though his work would seem corny today. According to some accounts, he died of a sun stroke in Florida just before the Civil War; he wasn't entirely missed.


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