The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903

Reno, Nevada, U.S.A.: University of Nevada Press, 1973 First edition. Edited by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Preface by Robert Morse Clark. 3 volumes. 2,381pp. Illustrated with nearly 80 photographs, facsimiles, portraits, maps, etc. Extensive index. Original gray-green cloth, gilt. Previous owner's signature on front endpaper (hard to see over printed paper) else, a very fine set with slipcase (printed paper label on slipcase). Doten is considered Nevada's premier diarist. No less than 55 of his years are recorded in 79 leather bound journals. The author sailed around the Horn at the age of 19 from Plymouth, Massachusetts in March of 1849. His life ended in Carson City in 1903. Starting as a carpenter, Doten became a rancher and miner in California's Sierra. He mined for gold in and around Rich Gulch, Lower Bar, and Spanish Gulch in the region of the Calaveras and Mokelumne rivers and provides "amazingly detailed descriptions of life in the Mother Lode" (Kurutz). In 1865 he began a 39 year journalistic career, first for Virginia City's Daily Union, and then after 1867 at the Gold Hill Daily News where he became editor-owner in 1872. The News became Nevada's leading political and mining journal. Along the way, Doten was also a horse breaker, a surgeon's assistant, a musical entertainer, a politician, mining expert, lime-burner, hunter, fisherman, insurance salesman and vigilante. Of unusual historic interest is Doten's coverage of the Comstock after 1878. "A monumental tribute to a pioneer-adventurer who experienced everything from lynching and murders to confrontations with Indians" (Paher). [Kurutz: 201; Paher: 491]..