<p >The last daughter bornto Jotham Bixby, the “Father of Long Beach,” Fanny Bixby Spencer (1879–1930)carved her own singular and eccentric path across California history. Born towealth and power, she chose a boldly independent, egalitarian lifestyle in anage when women’s lives were largely confined to domesticity. Fanny served withthe Long Beach Police Department as America’s first policewoman. She was afounder of the city of Costa Mesa in Orange County. Her humanitarian effortsreached across ethnicities and social standing. Yet beyond her civic accomplishments,Fanny was provocative as a poet, artist, pacifist, suffragist, child advocate,foster mother and humanitarian. Marcia Lee Harris captures this fascinatingwoman’s remarkable life, enhanced by Fanny’s own poetry and soulfulreflections.</p>