William Wright grew up in Ohio and Iowa. He left a wife and three children behind when he went to California as a prospector in 1857. Learning of the Comstock silver strike, he moved to Virginia City, Nevada Territory, in 1860. Joining the staff of the Territorial Enterprise in 1861, he wrote popular humorous pieces under the name “Dan De Quille.” SLC joined the paper the next year, and the two became friends and roommates. Dan balked at collecting his writings in book form; his one book, History of the Big Bonanza (1876), was written with SLC’s encouragement and published with his assistance. It remains a definitive account of the Comstock silver boom. In the late 1890s, with the mines tapped out and Virginia City almost a ghost town, Dan, who kept jobs with difficulty due to alcoholism, was destitute. His friend, Comstock millionaire John W. Mackay, granted him a small pension until his death.