From earthquakes, scandals, and tantalizing bonanzas to elegant ladies blowing their noses in “exquisitely modulated tones,” Mark Twain has left us a vision of San Francisco that is at once fascinating and hilariously familiar.

Jumping frogs, high society, San Francisco’s Emperor Norton and the stray dogs that followed on his heels—nothing escaped Mark Twain’s scrutiny or his acerbic wit. Bernard Taper has gathered together a heady selection of newspaper articles, correspondence, poetry, and short stories that are humorous—sometimes exasperating and controversial—but always engaging. Edward Jump, a contemporary of Twain’s, offers through his lively illustrations a visual drum roll to Twain’s cantankerous prose.