Golden Era (San Francisco, 1852–1894)
The Masthead
Founding and Purpose The Golden Era was founded in 1852 by Rollin M. Daggett and J. McDonough Ford in San Francisco. It was conceived as a “Good Family Newspaper,” intended for “every parlor and miners’ cabin,” appealing alike to merchants, farmers, and mechanics. Its editors declared it would be “untainted with politics and unbiased by religious prejudice.” The paper reflected the varied life of Gold Rush California, publishing recipes, ship news, serialized fiction, social notices, and brief reports of violent or comic events.
Editorial Character From its earliest years, The Golden Era promoted a distinctly Western literary voice, calling for a national literature “racy of the soil.” It argued that foreign writers should not dominate the reading public and urged the encouragement of native authors who could capture the life and color of the Pacific frontier. Its rural readers, scattered across mining camps and small towns, looked forward to each issue as a link to civilization and amusement.
Joseph Effingham Lawrence’s Editorship Joseph Effingham Lawrence (1825–1878) joined the paper in 1854 and in 1860 became its editor and co-owner. Under his leadership The Golden Era entered its most influential period. Lawrence shifted the paper away from crude local color toward more polished satire, serialized fiction, and literary criticism. He combined what contemporaries called “European intellectualism and Pacific Coast empiricism,” helping to create what later scholars described as “one of history’s most exciting intellectual atmospheres.” Lawrence’s genial personality and taste made him a beloved figure among young writers; one observer recalled “amiable Joe Lawrence, an inveterate pipe-smoker, a pillar of cloud as he sat in his editorial chair, an air of literary mystery enveloping him.”
Notable Contributors Lawrence had an instinct for discovering new talent. He was the first editor to publish the young Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, who arrived in San Francisco in 1864. Lawrence paid Twain five dollars an article and encouraged the irreverent humor that became his signature. Twain’s parodic descriptions of women’s fashions and his lampoons of Spiritualist séances appeared first in The Golden Era.
Bret Harte also began his career there. Hired initially as a compositor, he soon attracted Lawrence’s attention and was invited to write. Between 1857 and 1865 Harte published eleven poems and seventy-four sketches and articles in The Golden Era. His unfinished serial M’liss appeared there before he moved to The Californian and later to national prominence.
Artemus Ward and the Humor of the West Lawrence’s friendship with Edward Hingston, advance agent for the humorist Artemus Ward (Charles Ferrar Brown), introduced The Golden Era to the popular comic style that bridged the American frontier and the English music hall. Hingston recalled Lawrence’s “magnanimous” enthusiasm, declaring that he would make an entire issue an “Artemus Ward number.” This episode reflected Lawrence’s easy wit and his skepticism toward the Spiritualism then fashionable among his sisters Hannah and Lydia Lawrence, both active mediums.
Cultural Milieu The world of The Golden Era was that described later by Twain in Roughing It: overwhelmingly male, young, and irreverent, a mixture of violence and idealism that gave American humor its sharpness. The paper’s advertisements and verse reflected the crude abundance of the time—flea powders and patent pianofortes, codfish and Sarsaparilla tonics—mingling with theater notices and mock poetry contests.
Later Years and Legacy After Lawrence’s death the paper declined, eventually ceasing publication in the 1890s. Yet its influence was lasting. It had fostered the first true Western literary culture and served as the crucible for the two writers—Twain and Harte—who would carry California’s voice to the wider world.
Name and Identification Although later family and biographical sources refer to the editor as Joseph Effingham Lawrence, the middle name Effingham was never used in California. In all contemporary San Francisco newspapers, advertisements, and legal records he appears simply as Joseph E. Lawrence or J. E. Lawrence, and was familiarly known as “Joe Lawrence.” Effingham was, however, his baptismal name, bestowed in honor of the long-standing imaginary Lawrence and Townley family tradition of that name. See Effingham.