A California Love Story

An inspiring true story told through recovered letters—a young couple chronicles their cross-country journey of falling in love and making their dreams come true. In September 1925, young Ray Wilcox stepped off a train in Southern California. A humble midwestern man, he could hardly believe the remarkable sights before him—the vast Pacific Ocean, the sparkling California beaches, and the stunning coastal mountain ranges. Ray immediately began to formulate a plan for a successful life in this paradise, but he was missing one thing: his sweetheart, Dora. As he embarked on a campaign of letters to convince her to leave Kansas and join him, a love story began to grow. Through their tender and romantic correspondence, the ambitious young couple began to dream about a blissful future together in this gorgeous place called California. Nearly one hundred years later, John W. Thill discovered a hatbox filled with these forgotten letters from his grandparents' courtship. Within their worn folds, Thill found a story that was at once timeless and evocative, transporting him to a unique era in American history when the future of California was taking shape. Interwoven with Ray and Dora's authentic letters, Thill fondly discloses his grandparents' touching story—from the personal and economic hardships they experienced to the romantic hopes, dreams, and commitments of their young relationship. In A California Love Story, the optimism and perseverance of the past shines through, offering an inspiration for the present day. "It may be that I will never know what it means to be rich, with money. But real riches of life are not always found in computing the amount of any man's money. Good friends and neighbors . . . and a clean life count for more than mere dollars. The west is a good place to test out this, because here they measure a man by what he is instead of what he has."—Letter from Ray to Dora, April 1927.