Dan De Quille Papers

Journalist Dan De Quille (pen name for William Wright) came to the west coast of the United States from Iowa and Ohio in 1859. Between the years 1859-1862, he and his brother, Hank, moved frequently around the gold mines and cities of northern California, the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, and western Nevada Territory. While traveling he began submitting articles to eastern and western newspapers under the name Dan De Quille. These articles were filled with stories of the people, places, and adventures encountered in the west. He was a popular writer and soon was published weekly in a number of papers.

In 1862 De Quille went to work for Joseph T. Goodman, owner of the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada. By that time he'd become widely known, well liked, and respected for his craft. He was to work for the Enterprise off and on as a reporter and columnist for thirty years.

De Quille was a good friend and colleague of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Nevada newsman Alf Doten. The latter was also his drinking partner and recorded faithfully in his journals (edited by Walter Van Tilburg Clark and published by the University of Nevada Press as The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1973) Dan's problems with alcohol abuse. In between his drinking bouts, De Quille produced a prodigious number of articles, stories, novels, travelogues, and other works, the best known of which was The Big Bonanza, a book about the largest silver vein in the Comstock Lode of Virginia City.

De Quille died in Nevada in 1898, just a few years before his friend and fellow journalist, Alf Doten.