San Francisco Is Burning by Dennis Smith

The most striking impression conveyed by both books-in light of the tragedy last month-is how quickly local and federal governments rolled into action to rescue the citizens of a ruined city. Smith's 'San Francisco Is Burning: The Untold Story of the 1906 Earthquake and Fires,' by contrast, is plodding and dutiful, with endless descriptions of men fighting fires. We get a vivid picture of bawdy San Francisco, a scientific history of the fault and memorable sketches of heroes, including the controversial Army chief, Brig. Still, Winchester, a lyrical writer and an indefatigable researcher, packs his book with entertaining nuggets. And though he labors mightily to confer on the earthquake of '06 a grand significance, it can't match the awesome destructive power of the Krakatoa eruption. The mix worked brilliantly in 'Krakatoa,' but it's less successful in 'A Crack at the Edge of the World.' Some chapters feel like rehash: again he trots out Alfred Wegner's theory of continental drift, again he retraces the geological expedition he took to Greenland while at Oxford. Take an epic calamity and sprinkle with first-person travelogue, popular history, a heavy dose of seismology and ominous foreshadowing at nearly every turn. Readers familiar with Winchester's 'Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883,' which did for plate tectonics what Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' did for black holes, will recognize his formula. On the eve of the temblor's 100th anniversary, and, coincidentally, one month after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, two new books, Simon Winchester's 'A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906' and Dennis Smith's 'San Francisco Is Burning,' revisit old ground-with mixed results.

A young city that epitomized the rough-and-tumble energy of Theodore Roosevelt's America, San Francisco cast an indelible image of big dreams built on shaky foundations. Is there any natural disaster in history that has earned more ink than the Great San Francisco Earthquake? The rupture of the San Andreas Fault at dawn on April 18, 1906, knocked down much of the city, ignited a conflagration and spawned novels, nonfiction accounts, even a movie with Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald.

San Francisco Is Burning by Dennis Smith