San Francisco has always been a magnet. From Gold Seekers to Flower Children to Tech Wizards, The City has attracted dreamers and doers. Less well known in The City's colorful history:

• How San Francisco began as a colony of religious pilgrims.
• How the first newspaper transformed sleepy Yerba Buena into San Francisco and then launched the Gold Rush.
• How the publisher of that newspaper became the dominant historical figure of his time, only to be downplayed or purposely ignored later by many historians.

Like a Greek tragedy set in Gold Rush California, THE STAR, THE SAINT AND THE CITY is the true story of publisher Samuel Brannan, who amassed California's first great fortune. He became early San Francisco's most influential and flamboyant figure after trading his Mormon faith for his belief in the future of California, only to lose his fortune and die in obscurity.

Author William Briggs is an Emeritus California State University Dean of Communications and author of two previous volumes of California history, BADASS LAWMAN and THAT PIRATE, BOUCHARD. He lives in Morgan Hill, CA.