This book “Yermah the Dorado,” was first published at The Sign of the
Lark, San Francisco, in 1897. The issue was limited to five hundred
copies, mostly subscribed for by personal friends of mine. The notes,
manuscript and plates were all lost in the fire of 1906.
The date of publication is of the utmost importance because the Llama
City, Tlamco, the scene of this romance, was located in Golden Gate
Park, where it was destroyed by earthquake, in the long ago.
Since the actual occurrence of 1906, the original story has been
slightly revised, but not a line of the description of the earthquake
has been changed, nor an incident added. Whoever lived through those
days, as I did, will not need to be told why. The use of aeroplanes and
wireless telegraphy, with the recent visit of a huge comet are
additional reasons impelling me to reprint what is very like a
pre-vision of things to be.
To me Golden Gate Park is a hallowed spot. As a place of refuge I saw an
ephemeral city reared in a night of stress and misery. The beauty of a
rebuilt modern metropolis will but serve to recall the vanished glory of
the dream city ruled by the man who was the real El Dorado.