HISTORY OF THE BIG BONANZA: AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY, HISTORY, AND WORKING OF THE WORLD RENOWNED COMSTOCK SILVER LODE OF NEVADA INCLUDING THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE VARIOUS MINES SITUATED THEREON; SKETCHES OF THE MOST PROMINENT MEN INTERESTED IN THEM; INCIDENTS AND ADVENTURES CONNECTED WITH MINING, THE INDIANS AND THE COUNTRY; AMUSING STORIES, EXPERIENCES, ANECDOTES, &c., &c. AND A FULL EXPOSITION OF THE PRODUCTION OF PURE SILVER by Dan De Quille. (William Wright.) Profusely Illustrated. Sold by Subscription Only. Hartford, Conn. American Publishing Company. San Francisco, Cal.: A. L. Bancroft & Co., 1876. 22x14.5 cm (octavo), pp. [i-vii] viii [ix] x-xvi 17-569 [570: blank], flyleaves, 91 illustrations, most full page, some engraved from photographs made by John S. Noe and E. Hurd, publisher's taupe cloth decorated and lettered in black, gold and blind, light yellow endpapers. First edition, first printing. The major popular history of the Comstock Lode by a longtime resident of the region. Wright served as an editor on the renowned TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE from 1862 until its suspension in 1893. Wright "probably knew more about Virginia City and its residents and mines than anyone else. He watched his town become the mining and cultural capital of the inland West in the early 1870s and stayed on to witness its decline after 1878, when the exhaustion of local mining activities plunged the area into depression. Wright has written the greatest of all Comstock books and probably the best single book on any Western mining camp ... This excellent history discusses every phase of the epic rise of the Comstock ... The book was not well received in his day, but now it rates among the top dozen all-time Nevada books (Paher). The "most interesting chronicle of 'flush times' in Nevada following the 'silver strike'...." (Howes). Howes W710. Paher 2220. Touch of wear to cloth at spine ends and corner tips, a very good copy. A lovely copy of a book seldom found in nice condition. (#175333).
Price: $650.00
No statement of printing.