In 1859, a bankrupt rice merchant named Joshua Norton walked into a newspaper office in San Francisco and declared himself Emperor of the United States. In any other city, he would have been institutionalized. In San Francisco, they saluted him. "The Pauper Emperor" is the heartwarming and bizarre true story of Norton I, the monarch who issued his own currency (which local shops accepted), fired Abraham Lincoln by decree, and ordered the building of a bridge that wouldn't be constructed for another sixty years. It explores the psychology of collective delusion and the unique social contract of a city that decided kindness was better than reality. Norton wasn't just a madman; he was a mirror for the American dream in its most unhinged form.