Help Finding A Novel: Big Sur, Teacher, 19th or early 20th cen.

Hello, A newbie here!

I don't know if this is the appropriate place or not but if not kindly direct me to right place and if there is no right place .... well, then what's the matter with you guys?

I'm looking for a particular book and an wonder if any of you have heard of it. The friend who told me about it says it's about a woman in Big Sur "in the old days" and goes into much detail about the day to day aspects of living in the middle of nowhere before roads and with no towns, in particular it describes travel and the attitude toward travel when one lived in a place and time when going *anywhere* would take at least a day.

So historical novel about Big Sur. Turn of the 20th Century (or earlier). Teacher in one room school house. Vacationers from San Francisco to Tasajara Hot Springs. {when I was 8 years old I could not comprehend why *anyone* would want to go to Tasajara Hot Springs-- for me it was hell} Camping in a Cave in the Santa Lucia mountains. Might but might not have "Sand Dollar" or "Sand Dollar Beach" in title. Any-one happen to have read it?

Ah, so *this* is the place. Okay...

http://books.google.com/books/about/Sanddollars.html?id=OhbpZV2Ixd0C

I'm 90% sure it must be "Sand Dollars" by Doris Campbell written in 1998.

thothguard51 said:

You might look and see if this is the book you are talking about...



Big Sur Women, by Judith Goodman.

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It isn't but it certainly seems interesting. It might be a useful as a resource if I get into serious research.

Thanks very much for looking!

There is also Henry Miller's book, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch.

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Yeah..... me and Henry Miller don't really get along... But mostly that is a good twenty years later then the period I am interested in.

Before 1919 the only access to Big Sur was a walking trail that was very dangerous and took three *days* to go the 27 miles to Monterey. In the 20's it was made into a auto-mobile road (the only road in America to skip the in-between wagon-trail step) and the trip became a matter of several hours. In 1937 Bixby Bridge was built and it become the one hour trip it is now.

I'm writing a work were I want my character in 1907 to go the 11 miles from Carmel to Bixby Creek 'cause she wants to look at the view. My first thought was "10 minute car ride/2 hour horse and buggy trip; no significant difference". I did a little research and whoo-boy! Figured it could still be done and *was* done frequently but I just couldn't wrap my modern-day mind around what sort of *attitude* would folks have about such distances. I casually mentioned it to my cousin and she said she had read a book that it discussed *exactly* that.

I haven't found anything about Big Sur with Sand dollars in the title.

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Yeah, it was a harder search than I would have thought. Found it on the third page of an Amazon search where I had to search on *both* SAND DOLLAR and BIG SUR.

Thanks so much for trying.