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Dan De Quille papers

 Collection
Call Number: WA MSS S-2667

Scope and Contents

This collection consists chiefly of papers created and collected by Dan De Quille that document a portion of his writing career, circa 1860-1898, as well as a small quantity of material accumulated by his family from 1936 to circa 1956. The papers consist of correspondence, writings, photographs, and ephemera, as well as newspaper clippings collected by De Quille on a variety of subjects.

The correspondence in the collection encompasses letters from editors and publishers to De Quille about his writing, as well as a small quantity of letters written by De Quille to his daughter Mell Wright Evans and sister Louisa G. Wright Stevens. There is also a small group of correspondence about De Quille between his granddaughter Irma Evans Morris and Nevada historian Effie Mona Mack in 1936.

Writings by De Quille include a notebook with outlines, drafts, and notes for stories and articles. Other writings include draft manuscripts for articles about Virginia City and California, as well as about Peru, and tales based in the Middle East.

Photographs in the collection include portraits of De Quille and views of his gravesite. Ephemera in the collection includes scrapbook sheets with illustrations that De Quille clipped from magazines and newspapers to present to his granddaughter.

Dates

  • circa 1860-circa 1956
  • Majority of material found within 1885 - 1898

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Dan De Quille Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from the William Reese Company on William Robertson Coe Fund No. 3, 2010.

Arrangement

Organized into four series: I. Correspondence, circa 1860-1953. II. Writings, 1876-circa 1956. III. Photographs, circa 1885-circa 1930. IV. Other Papers, 1875-1898.

Extent

1 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.dequille

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection consists chiefly of papers created and collected by Dan De Quille that document a portion of his writing career, circa 1860-1898, as well as a small quantity of material accumulated by his family from 1936 to circa 1956. The papers consist of correspondence, writings, photographs, and ephemera, as well as newspaper clippings collected by De Quille on a variety of subjects.

Dan De Quille (1829-1898)

William Wright (1829-1898), better known by the pen name Dan De Quille, was an American author, journalist, and humorist. He was born in Knox County, Ohio, the oldest of nine children. In 1849, he moved west with his family to West Liberty, Iowa, where he married Caroline Coleman (1829-1912) in 1853. They had five children, two of whom died in infancy. Their surviving children wereMell Wright Evans (1855-1906), Lura "Lou" Gertrude Wright (1856-1928), and Paxson George Wright (1858-1929).

In 1857, Wright traveled alone to California and prospected for gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and in the Mono Lake region. In 1859, he moved to the silver mining town of Virginia City, Nevada, which extracted its mineral wealth from the Comstock Lode, the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States. In 1862, Wright began writing for the Daily Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City and adopted the pen name Dan De Quille. He remained on the staff of the newspaper for over thirty years and wrote extensively about the people, events, and mining operations in the region. From August 1863 to May 1864, he supervised the work of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), who adopted the pen name Mark Twain while writing for the newspaper.

In 1874, a group of mine operators in Virginia City approached De Quille to write a history of the Comstock Lode. Working in Hartford, Connecticut, under the editorship of Mark Twain, he wrote A History of the Big Bonanza (American Publishing Company, 1876).

Near the end of his life, De Quille returned to West Liberty, Iowa.

Processing Information

The description for the collection derives chiefly from a list provided by the dealer, which the processing archivist compared to the collection contents and augmented when appropriate. The material was removed from three-ring binders and rehoused in archival folders and boxes.

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Dan De Quille Papers
Author
by Matthew Daniel Mason
Date
May 2011
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/
Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.

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