The Romance of Nikolai Rezanov and Concepción Argüello: A Literary Legend and Its Effect on California History

Kingston, Ont. ; Fairbanks, Alaska: Limestone Press, 1998. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). vii, 156 pages, 20 unnumbered pages of plates: illustrations, photographs; 23 cm; bibliographical references. As new (fine). Paperback. ISBN: 1895901227; 9781895901221

Uncommon. Alaska History; No. 48. Iversen’s study of how a brief 1806 betrothal at the San Francisco Presidio became one of California’s founding love stories. The facts are slight. Rezanov, a Tsarist official who had sailed with Krusenstern’s Nadezhda voyage, came to San Francisco to buy supplies for the starving Russian colony at Sitka. There he courted the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Spanish commandant, José Darío Argüello, became engaged to her across the Orthodox–Catholic divide, and sailed with his cargo and a draft trade treaty, promising to return. He died in Siberia on 8 March 1807 on his way to St. Petersburg. She never married, took the veil late in life, and died in 1857. The legend grew out of the tradition that she waited for decades without learning his fate. It was set against the expedition naturalist Georg von Langsdorff’s more cynical reading of the match, and elaborated in Bret Harte’s ballad, Gertrude Atherton’s novel Rezanov (1906), and in Russia Andrei Voznesensky’s poem, the basis of the rock opera Juno and Avos. Issued with The Concha Argüello Story in the same volume. ¶ Contents: Romance of Nikolai Rezanov and Concepcion Arguello: Literary legend and its effect on California history -- Concha Arguello story: Memory visits with Old Vinnie -- Nikolai Rezanov-Concepcion Arguello story; Some historical notes.;Named Person: Argüello y Morago, María de la Concepción Marcela, -1857. Rezanov, Nikolaĭ Petrovich, 1764-1807. Argüello y Morago, María de la Concepción Marcela, -1857 Rezanov, Nikolaĭ Petrovich, 1764-1807 Time: To 1846 Geographic: California -- History -- To 1846. Californie -- Histoire -- Jusqu'à 1846. California