An amazing man and an amazing woman. There was nothing small about Claus Spreckels. Everything that he did was on the grandest scale. He saw opportunities everywhere. He became the richest man in California. On California’s Monterey Bay he built the largest and finest summer resort in the state where he hosted the Inauguration Ball for Governor Pacheco. He brought the railroad and built the largest beet sugar refinery in the world. He was visited by royalty. He was famous in his time but largely unsung today. The amazing woman is Sandra Bonura who had the fortitude to research and write this amazing untold story.

In The Sugar King of California Sandra E. Bonura tells the rags-to-riches story of Spreckels’s role in the developments of the sugarcane industry in the American West and across the Pacific, triumphing in a milieu rife with cronyism and corruption and ultimately transforming California’s industry and labor. Harshly criticized by his enemies for ruthless business tactics but loved by his employees, he was unapologetic in his quest for wealth, asserting “Spreckels’s success is California’s success.” But there’s always a cost for single-minded determination; the legendary family quarrels even included a murder charge. Spreckels’s biography is one of business triumph and tragedy, a portrait of a family torn apart by money, jealousy, and ego.

This is the first book to chronicle Claus Spreckels’ amazing life. Author Sandra Bonura will be giving a free presentation at the Aptos Library on July 13^th. This excellent book will be available after June 1^st in hardcover for $39.95 but is available for 40% off for museum members and friends for a limited time. Use this link to order. https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496235114/. And 6AS24 CODE. Credit cards will not be charged until the orders are fulfilled.