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History of the Big Bonanza by Dan De Quille, First Edition 3 [164154]

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:120.00 USD Estimated At:240.00 - 400.00 USD
History of the Big Bonanza by Dan De Quille, First Edition  3  [164154]
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225.00USDto 8*************e+ buyer's premium (56.25)
This item SOLD at 2023 Dec 07 @ 14:00UTC-8 : PST/AKDT

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1st Edition; Squire P. Dewey's copy signed by him. Rare and attractive gold gilt embossed front cover and spine. History of the Comstock including the men, Indians, incidents, anecdotes etc. Illustrations of Virginia City, Gold Hill, The Scared Bully, Donner Lake etc. 569pp with TOC, appendix. Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1876. 91 illustrations listed, but plate 44 missing and believed to have been omitted from all copies. (See Graff 4757), appendix. #267/1880 penciled in back page. One page introduction by Mark Twain, a close friend whose two years on the Enterprise, under De Quille's tutelage, was the turning point in Twain's life. Twain said of DeQuille that "the first big compliment I ever received was that I was 'almost worthy to write in the same column with Dan De Quille.'" The classic book of the discovery and mining of silver and gold on the Comstock Lode by the editor of the Territorial Enterprise during the great rush and development of the mines. A hardened and knowledgeable reporter, DeQuille wrote many stories about the mines and activities of Virginia City, Nevada during late 1850s and continuing into the 1870s. He was considered a mining expert by many people, especially the miners themselves, and was invited into all the great mines. The wealth of his information about these great mines was published in the Enterprise's daily paper and later he compiled his recollections into "The Big Bonanza". Paher in his "Nevada: Annotated Bibliography" writes: "This excellent history discusses every phase of the epic rise of the Comstock. There are chapters on the humorous events that led to the initial rush of 1859 after the discovery of silver and on the early societal life. Wright, who knew intimately the special technological advances which were required to work North America's first truly deep mines, presents details about them long ignored by others." Graff 4757. Howes, USiana, W-710. Paher, Nevada: An Annotated Bibliography, 2220. Adams, Six-Guns 2457. Fine plus condition. Squire Pierce Dewey (1818-1889) was a wealthy speculator in San Francisco and a heavy investor in the Comstock Mines. He felt wronged by the Bonanza Kings and accused them of gross frauds and misrepresentations in their libelous publications. So venomous was his beliefs, that he published a book exposing the of their wrong doings in 1880, "The Bonanza Mines and the Bonanza Kings 0f California - Their Five Years of Reign". Virginia City Nevada Franklin Collection