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The Sagebrush School
In 1861, Samuel Clemens left his home in Missouri to adventure in the American West. In Carson City, he became obsessed with finding gold and spent 11 months galivanting across the desert. When he ran out of money, Clemens moved to Virginia City to be a newspaper reporter for the “Territorial Enterprise.” Three years later, he left Nevada with bright prospects and a brand-new pen name—Mark Twain.
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The Sagebrush School
Nevada’s first generation of writers and journalists ushered in a golden age of literature in the West. BY CORY MUNSON On a cold December night in the town of Mormon Station, two men slotted the final components of their printing press into place. Their press assembled, they pulled out their letterboxes and set up, letter […]
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Nevada Part III: Twain, Trains, & The Pony Express
BY RON SOODALTER During the mid-to-late-1800s, Nevada passed in record time from unsettled wilderness, to the nation’s premier gold and silver mecca, to its 36th state. In the process, it underwent a number of improvements designed to bring it up to par with its sister states and to ease its passage into the modern world. […]
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The Quaints of DeQuille
Reaching a daily circulation of more than 15,000 copies, Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise was at one time the largest newspaper west of the Mississippi River. Readers of this Nevada publication were treated to the prose and tales of famous journalist and author Samuel Clemens, who used the legendary nom de plume of Mark Twain. But another Enterprise reporter, renowned for his gymnastic vocabulary and whom some considered to be a better writer even than Twain, was William Wright.