Juan Alvarado, Governor of California, 1836-1842 (Paperback: 232 pages)

Aided at first by his young uncle -- Commandant Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo -- Juan Alvarado led two armed revolts against Mexico, declaring himself governor of California at the age of twenty-seven. His administration emphasized education, cultural affairs, the court system, and private property rights. During his term in office -- he was the first governor to serve a full six years -- California was transformed from a poverty-stricken frontier garrison state to a proud pastoral economy based on widespread private ownership of ranches and farms.

This informative account of Alvarado's life is based primarily on the 1,200-page manuscript that he dictated in 1876 to an agent of historian Hubert Howe Bancroft and on his "Notes on California History, " prepared in connection with a lawsuit over ownership of the 17,000-acre Rancho San Pablo (northeast of San Francisco), where Alvarado lived for more than thirty years after he left office.