Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez

For an account of the Baja of years past, few works beat John Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez, published in 1951. It recounts a six-week voyage he took in 1940 with marine biologist Ed Ricketts for the purpose of cataloging new aquatic species on the gulf side of Baja California. (Phialoba steinbecki, a previously unknown species of sea anemone discovered during the excursion, was later named for the author.)

Steinbeck lamented what he was sure would one day be the inevitable tourism growth to arrive on the peninsula. The author was mistaken on one key point however: he was certain the megaboom would come to La Paz and not to then-sleepy Cabo San Lucas.