Dan De Quille was the chronicler of the Comstock Lode and one of the most talented authors of the Old West. He lived in the Comstock Lode region of western Nevada and eastern California forty years, from 1857 to 1897, and wrote about it not only with love but also with unequaled firsthand knowledge. Many other authors became better known than he mainly because he neglected in his lifetime to collect and publish in book form the many short stories, essays, and works of humor that made him a famous and much sought-after author by magazines and newspapers across the country.

At the Territorial Enterprise, the major newspaper of Virginia City, Nevada, he was a fellow employee, roommate, and friend of Mark Twain. He was both a mentor to Twain and a source of anecdotes that found their way into Roughing It (1872), Life on the Mississippi, (1883), and The Adventures of...