Emperor of the United States: The Bizarre and Noble Story of Joshua Abraham Norton and His Cult Following in 19th Century San Francisco
In November of 1849, during the frenzied height of the California Gold Rush, a ship from Rio de Janeiro docked in San Francisco harbor and off of the gangplank stepped Joshua Abraham Norton--the future Emperor of the United States of America! Joshua Abraham Norton would one day proclaim himself to be the Emperor of the United States of America, however when he came ashore in late 1849 in the western frontier gold rush boomtown that was San Francisco, California at that time, no one in the city--not a single soul--had any idea who the hell he was. If they had known who he was they most probably would have thought that he was an unmitigated failure at life who was running from his foggy and somewhat sketchy past, and like most of the hundreds of souls who arrived daily at the port of San Francisco, was seeking to strike it rich overnight at one of California’s many gold prospecting sites. Had anyone known who Joshua Abraham Norton was when he arrived in San Francisco, and had they s