Grandson of a 49er, mining engineer Errol MacBoyle chose to resurrect the “worked out” Idaho Maryland gold mine. He and his beautiful wife Glendolyn scraped by in a leaky cottage in the woods, but after he located a lost vein and made it the richest mine in California, they lived a fabulous life of private planes, thoroughbred racing horses, and expensive jewels, and “Glen” MacBoyle hobnobbed with San Francisco’s glamorous and eccentric “Big Alma” Spreckels. Then World War II shut down their Santa Rosa winery, closed America’s gold mines, and halted work on his incredible state-of-the-art hospital at Grass Valley. When MacBoyle suffered a paralytic stroke, no one imagined he could salvage his broken empire . . . but they were wrong.
472 pp, 67 illus; paperback, $27.50