This page is sponsored by award-winning author and recognized authority on women in the gold rush, JoAnn Levy, whose book, They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush, was praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as "one of the best and most comprehensive accounts of gold rush life to date."

Daughter of Joy, A Novel of Gold Rush San Francisco, inspired by the Chinese prostitute Ah Toy, won the 1999 WILLA award for Best Historical Fiction. A second novel, For California's Gold, received the prize in 2001, after debuting at the National Archives in Washington, DC, where JoAnn spoke in honor of Women's History Month and California's statehood sesquicentennial. 

Levy's 4th book, Unsettling the West, has received excellent reviews from both the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times. Her most recent work, a novel inspired by true life events, is The Sutter Creek Chronicles.