I Do Not Want to be Drowned" A Song Respectfully Dedicated to the Survivors of the Wreck of the Golden Gate. Poetry by Frank Soule, Music by P. R. Nicholls [cover title]

San Francisco: Printed & Published by Chas. F. Robbins, 1862. Lithography of George H. Baker, 1862. First edition, "2nd Thousand" printed above the title. OCLC records two copies (HEH & BYU). Paper a little browned and chipped at the edges; very good copy. Rare.. Folio, color-lithographed pictorial cover and three pages of music. ¶ A song by San Francisco poet, journalist and chronicler Franklin Soulé (1810-1882) about the rescue of a little girl, Addie Manchester, from the burning wreck of the Steamship Golden Gate, which sank in flames off the coast of Mexico on July 27, 1862; over 200 people died. When the survivors returned to San Francisco, the story of the rescue became an overnight legend and Franklin Soulé further memorialized it with this song. Soulé has a permanent place in California history as one of the compilers of the famous Annals of San Francisco (1855). He was also a newspaper editor and a popular occasional poet and orator for the California Society of Pioneers, among other organizations. (Inventory #: 28065)