In the days that followed the great earthquake of 1906, stories of loss and hardship filled papers and journals. More than 300,000 were homeless by nightfall either from the quake or by fire. However, business had to go on, and George Brooks and the California Insurance Company were picking up the pieces of one of the greatest civic disasters in history. The Spirit of 1906 offers one man's tale of survival and the coming hardships of his personal and professional life.ℓ