"A well-organized, well-told, often fascinating story of a life."—Harlan Hague, Roundup Magazine
"The best biography I've read in over 20 years."—Blaine DeSantis, booktrib.com
"In Bonura's thorough, insightful biography, the Sugar King reigns once more."—Peter Fish, Datebook
“Imagine 150 years from now that no one had written the comprehensive history of Elon Musk. Sandra Bonura is the first biographer to give a heart and soul to Claus Spreckels, his era’s Musk. Fiercely independent, resourceful, and combative, Spreckels arguably altered the history of California more than anyone in his time. In this deeply researched biography Bonura paints a complete tapestry of Spreckels’s complicated business and family life, wealth beyond imagination, and the incredible drive of a titan without peer.”—Vincent J. Dicks, author of Forsaken Kings: Emma Spreckels, the Surfer of Asbury Park
“San Francisco occupies the tip of a peninsula, the thumb of a grasping hand around a storied bay. Anyone who deeply examines the history of the city begins to suspect the print of that thumb belongs to nineteenth-century ‘Sugar King’ Claus Spreckels. More than a century after his death, the mark of this blue-collar tycoon can still be found in almost every square mile of San Francisco.”—Woody LaBounty, president and CEO of San Francisco Heritage
“Anyone making a shortlist (however short the list) of the most important people that influenced the development of Hawai‘i in the late nineteenth century has to include Claus Spreckels. Sugar and the ‘Sugar King’ changed the economic and social makeup of the Hawaiian Islands, and Sandra Bonura takes us through the journey of his life and the profound legacy he left.”—Peter T. Young, designated a Living Treasure of Hawai‘i by the Honpa Hongwanji and president of Hoʻokuleana LLC
“This book gives a taste of the American dream, lived by a poor German farmhand, who became one of those mythical figures who created modern California. Bonura presents Claus Spreckels’s life full of work, rude business methods, luck, and eventually moderation—and combines this with a touching history of his private life.”—Uwe Spiekermann, former deputy director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC
“There was nothing small about Claus Spreckels. Everything 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.”—John Hibble, president of Aptos Chamber of Commerce and curator of the Aptos History Museum
