author
Dan De Quille
1829–1898
A lively chronicler of the Wild West, he turned Nevada's silver-boom days into vivid stories full of local color, humor, and firsthand detail. Writing under the name Dan De Quille, he helped preserve the atmosphere of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode for later generations.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born William Wright in Ohio in 1829, he became better known by his pen name, Dan De Quille. He was an American journalist, author, and humorist who built his reputation writing about life in and around Virginia City, Nevada, during the great silver-mining boom of the Comstock Lode.
He worked for the Territorial Enterprise, the same newspaper closely associated with Mark Twain, and became known for colorful accounts of miners, speculators, frontier characters, and everyday life in the West. His best-known book, History of the Big Bonanza (1876), drew on his close knowledge of the mines and the people who made the Comstock famous.
Today he is remembered as one of the sharpest literary witnesses to Nevada's early boom years. His writing blends reporting, storytelling, and humor, making it valuable both as history and as a vivid portrait of a fast-changing frontier world.