Felix Wierzbicki (Polish: Feliks Paweł Wierzbicki [Felix Paul Wierzbicki]; 1 January 1815, in Czerniawka, Volhynia, Poland, now Chernyavka, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine – 26 December 1860, in San Francisco) was a Polish-American veteran of the November 1830 Uprising, physician, soldier,[1] traveler, and writer.[2]

In 1849, Wierzbicki published in San Francisco the first English-language book printed in California,[3] California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region.[4][5][6] The book is an "unvarnished" description of the culture, peoples, and climate of the area at that time. Wierzbicki described prospective settlers, and included a survey of agriculture and hints on gold mining.[7]

Wierzbicki died on 26 December 1860 in San Francisco and was buried there in the Laurel Hill Cemetery.[8] His remains were later reinterred at the San Francisco National Cemetery.[1][3]

Books

• The Ideal Man: A Conversation between Two Friends, upon the Beautiful, the Good, and the True, as Manifested in Actual Life, Boston, E.P. Peabody, 1842.[9] Signed A Philokalist ("Lover of Beauty"), credited to Wierzbicki.[10][11]
• California as It Is and as It May Be, or A Guide to the Gold Region, 1849.

Notes

References

• Miecislaus Haiman [Mieczysław Haiman], "Dr. Felix Paul Wierzbicki", in Polish Pioneers of California, Chicago, Polish R[oman] C[atholic] Union of America, 1940, pp. 39–43.
• George D. Lyman, "Wierzbicki: The Book and the Doctor" (introduction to reprint of California as It Is and as It May Be, San Francisco, Grabhorn Press, 1933).

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