Mark Twain · 1872 · road
Mark Twain's 1872 account of going west. He set out as secretary to his brother, newly appointed to the Nevada Territory, expecting to be back in three months and staying six years. The book covers the overland stage, the silver rush, a spell as a mining speculator who briefly owned a fortune and lost it by mislaying a deadline, and a career in newspapers.
- 1St Joseph
Twain buys a seat on the overland stage at St Joseph with twenty-five pounds of luggage allowance, an unabridged dictionary and no idea what he is doing - and the coach starts west across the plains at speed.
- 2Salt Lake City
Twenty days of stage travel bring him through South Pass to Salt Lake City, where he investigates the Mormons with a straight face and reports on polygamy in a manner calculated to annoy everybody equally.
- 3Carson City
At Carson City the territorial government consists of his brother, a desk and very little else - and Twain, nominally a secretary, discovers there is essentially nothing for him to do and goes prospecting instead.
- 4Virginia City
On the Comstock Lode he becomes a millionaire for ten days by holding a claim, loses it by failing to work it in time, and takes a job on the Territorial Enterprise - where the name Mark Twain first appears in print.
- 5San Francisco
He goes over the mountains to San Francisco and newspaper work, is briefly rich and briefly destitute, and ends the book having discovered the trade he will follow for the next forty years.