Little Lucy’s Papa by Dan DeQuille

©2012 Clarence Dave Basso

Writing in the early 1860s from his “Tudor-style mansion” in Silver City, Nevada Territory, William Wright, nom de plum Dan DeQuille, contributed many “waifs from Washoe” to San Francisco’s legendary Golden Era newspaper, and among those gems was “Little Lucy’s Papa,” a masterpiece of pathos, a style for which he became famous. First published in 1864, this “Story of Silverland” was republished in 1987 as a limited edition book by Clarence Dave Basso at Falcon Hill Press in Sparks, Nevada.

The following review appeared in the spring 1988 issue of the journal Western American Literature:

“Little Lucy’s Papa: A Story of Silverland. By Dan DeQuille/William Wright. (Sparks, Nevada: Falcon Hill Press, 1987. 30 pages, $49.)

“Forty-nine dollars may seem like a lot for 30 pages. But if you could see this small book, with its heavy sable pages, its flawless printing, its multicolored embellishments on each page, and its creamy blue hard cover, you would understand the care that publisher Dave Basso gave each step of the publishing process, and thus the necessity for the price. This is one of the loveliest limited edition books I’ve seen.

“The story given such special treatment is “Little Lucy’s Papa,” first published in San Francisco’s The Golden Era in 1864. Its author, Dan DeQuille. is credited by many as being the one who taught “frontier journalism” to Mark Twain. DeQuille’s writing, like Twain’s western writing, reveals the mannerisms, the folkways, and the concerns of nineteenth-century people living in the West. This particular story is set in Virginia City, Nevada. Its main character is a man who has left his wife and children in the Fast, planning to return to them in one year, after he has made his fortune in the mines. Predictably, the years drag on and he has not returned. Just as a twist of fate finally offers him a way to make his fortune, it also takes away his chance to return home. The man dies, and is buried by strangers. The story opens and closes with a realistic, but at the same time romantic, image of his un-mourned grave. Sentimental? Definitely. Overstated? Yes, but no more than most stories of its time. Moralistic? To be sure—though not without some application in materialistic times such as these. And the verbal embellishment is complemented by the artistic embellishments. Basso is to be commended for his sense of design and balance in relation to text.

“CHARLOTTE M. WRIGHT  [no relation to William Wright (Dan DeQuille)], Utah State University”

Long out of print, Little Lucy’s Papa now may be read in this copyrighted

PowerPoint presentation: Little Lucy’s Papa by Dan DeQuille.

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