A Debonair Scoundrel

Originally published in 1962, this book tells the flamboyant story of Abe Ruef and San Francisco's infamous era of graft. In the year 1906, San Francisco was rocked by two calamitous earthquakes. Nature herself was responsible for one; a man named Ruef was responsible for the other. Abraham Ruef (1864-1936), known as Abe Ruef, was a rogue of innumerable refinements. A classical scholar, a wit, a bon vivant, he was also a political boss who not only picked the city's officials—among them, "Handso