Frank Norris

 

As Robert D. Lundy explains in "The Polk Street Background of McTeague" (Norton Critical Edition pp. 257-262), Norris used many observed details of actual San Francisco places in the novel. One was the spectacular Cliff House to which McTeague and Marcus walk in Chapter 4. The third version of the Cliff House, pictured to the right, was built in 1896 and burned down in 1907.