With its golden beaches and sheer cliffs, glacial water and tropical palms; with its ever-spreading metropolis, larger-than-life celebrities, and over-the-top prosperity, California is, without contest, the kingdom of contrast, beyond measure and beyond superlatives. For four centuries this land at the edge of the western world attracts hardy adventurers like a magnet, and today’s California is modeled in the image of the extravagant landscapes and the legendary tycoons who call it home.