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Alfred Doten
Nevada Writers Hall of Fame 1995

Alfred Doten (1829-1903) is noted for his daily diary, considered by historians to be one of the most unique and valuable documents on the social history of the American West. A native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Doten briefly apprenticed as a carpenter and worked as a fisherman before sailing for the gold fields of California in 1849. Over the next 14 years, he was a gold prospector, farmer, and rancher. He became an occasional correspondent for a Plymouth newspaper, and moved to Nevada's Comstock district in 1863, where he became a newspaper journalist. He was briefly a colleague of Mark Twain writing for the Virginia Daily Union and the Gold Hill Daily News, and was a close friend and drinking companion of Dan De Quille. He was the editor for the Gold Hill Daily News from 1867-1881. After buying it in 1872, he was its publisher until 1881.

Doten was active in the Republican Party in Nevada. He married Mary Stoddard in 1873, and the couple had four children. After losing the Gold Hill Daily News due to financial problems, he relocated to Austin, Nevada, and briefly edited the Reese River Reveille newspaper.

Doten began writing detailed and candid personal diaries in 1849 and continued the practice until the day he died. His journals portray the life and times of the mining frontier. They are straightforward, blunt, and often mundane, but bursting with real life. The journals fill 79 leather-bound volumes containing over a million and a half words. They were acquired by the University of Nevada, Reno in 1961. The University selected Walter Van Tilburg Clark to edit the journals, and the University Press published them in 1973.

The Special Collections Department of the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries owns Doten's personal copies of Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches (1868 ed.), The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day (1874 ed.), Roughing It (1872 ed.), Sketches New and Old (1875 ed.), and A Tramp Abroad (1880 ed.).

Bibliography for Alfred Doten:

Nonfiction:

Clark, Walter Van Tilburg, ed. The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1973. [Available: Getchell Library: F 841 .D6 Vols. 1-3; also at Western NV Community College, Carson City and Fallon campuses, and Great Basin College, Elko]

Como Sentinel (newspaper). Dayton, Nevada Territory.

Doten, Alfred, comp. & ed. Donation of the Cabinet Property of the Society to the State and Its Acceptance by the Legislature of 1887. Carson City, NV: Nevada State Printing Office, 1887. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: F596 .D68 1887] (Society of Pacific Coast Pioneers)

"Eternal Repose," in In Memoriam: John Booth. Reese River Reveille. Austin, NV, 1884? [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: F 849 .A9 I5; the newspaper is also available in Main Reference Microfilm: N11 for 1869-1926]

Gold Hill Daily News (newspaper). Gold Hill, Nevada Territory, 1863-1882. [Available: Getchell Library, Main Reference Microfilm: N7 (1863-1882). Its alternate titles: Evening News, Gold Hill News]

"In Memoriam: John Booth." Reese River Reveille. [1884?] [Available: UNR Libraries: Special Collections: F 849 .A9 I5]

"The Inquisitive Traveler." New York Times (Feb. 28, 1890), p. 2. [Available: Getchell Library, Main Reference: Microfilm N5 and online via New York Times~Proquest Historical Newspapers] (a reprint of a Territorial Enterprise item)

Territorial Enterprise (newspaper). Virginia City, NV. [Available: Getchell Library, Main Reference Microforms: Microfilm N506, 1861,1865-1916,1946]

Virginia City Daily Union (newspaper). Virginia City, NV. [Doten was local editor until Oct. 17, 1865]

Song Lyric:

"From the valley to the summit (first line)," (Class song) in Plymouth High School. Class Day. 1892. Plymouth, Massachusetts: 1892.

Biographical Sources & Critical Response:

Anonymous. "Great Gold Rush Days." in Life (April 27, 1959) Vol. 46, pp. 78-90+. [Available: Getchell Library: AP 2 L547 1959] (includes excerpt from Doten's diary)

Anonymous. " The 'Mock Robbery' of Mark Twain (Letters of Mrs. Alf Doten and Steve Gillis)." Twainian (Jan.-Feb. 1955) Vol. XV, pp. 2-4. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections]

Berkove, Lawrence I. "Doten, Alfred." in American National Biography Online database.

Blackburn, George M. and Ricards, Sherman L. "The Prostitutes and Gamblers of Virginia City, Nevada: 1870." Pacific Historical Review (1979) Vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 239-258. [Available: Getchell Library: F 851 P18 1979]

Clark, Walter Van Tilburg. "Alf Doten in Como." Nevada Highways and Parks. Carson City, NV: State of Nevada, Dept. of Highways, 1964. pp. 26-29, 34-37. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3505 .L376 A443 1964]

Cobb, Ty. "Who Was Alf Doten?" Nevada State Journal (April 20, 1975): p. 9.

Davis, Samuel P., ed. The History of Nevada. Reno: Elms Pub., 1913. [Available: Getchell Library & DeLaMare Library: F 841 H5 1913]

Doten, Alfred. Papers, 1849-1903. (archival material) [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: NC08] Collection Finding Aid

Drury, Aubrey. Aubrey Drury Notes on Alf Doten and Other Nevada Pioneers. University of California, Berkeley. (archival material) 1959.

Drury, Wells. An Editor of the Comstock Lode. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, [1936]. [Available: Getchell Library: F 849 V8 D73]

Egan, Ferol. "The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903 (review)." American West (Nov/Dec 1976) Vol. 13, p. 52. [Available: Getchell Library: F 591 A1 A4 1976]

Egan, Ferol. "The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903 (review)." California Historical Quarterly (Spring 1976) Vol. 55, pp. 90-91. [Available: Getchell Library: F 856 .C24 1976]

Haraway, Fran (2006). Mary Stoddard Doten. In: M. A. Duval (Ed). Skirts that Swept the Desert Floor: One Hundred Biographical Profiles of Nevada Women in History (pp. 58-59). Vol. 1. Las Vegas, NV: Stephens Press. [Available: Getchell Library: F 840 .S65 2006]

Jackson, Joe. "Clark completed huge history before death." Reno Evening Gazette (Nov. 13, 1971), p. 16.

Jackson, W. Turrentine. "The Journals of Alfred Doten, 1849-1903 (review)." Western Historical Quarterly (Jan. 1976) Vol. 7, pp. 73-74. [Available: Getchell Library: F 591 .A1 W36 1976]

Jacobson, Yvonne. Passing Farms, Enduring Values: California's Santa Clara Valley. Los Altos, CA: W. Kaufmann in cooperation with the California History Center, De Anza College, Cupertino, California, 1984. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: S 451 .C2 J3 1984]

The Journals of Alfred Doten (advertisement) in Nevada State Journal (Nov. 26, 1975)

Lerude, Warren. "Nevada history lives in Alf Doten diaries." Reno Evening Gazette (April 5, 1975), p. 18.

Lingenfelter, Richard E. The Newspapers of Nevada: A History and Bibliography. San Francisco: John Howell-Books, 1964. [Available: Getchell Library: Z 6952 N49 L5]

The Mark Twain Papers & Project. Berkeley, CA: Bancroft Library, University of CA-Berkeley. (archival material)

Roberts, Brian. "Alfred Doten: Diversity and the Anglo Forty-niner." in Davis, Clark and Igler, David, eds. The Human Tradition in California. (Series: The Human Tradition in America, no. 14) Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2002. [Available: Getchell Library: CT 225 .H86 2002]

Rocha, Guy. "Julia Bulette: A Comstock legend grows." Reno Gazette-Journal (April 23, 2006), p. B10. [Available: Getchell Library, Main Reference Microforms: N9]

Please direct questions about this bibliography to Betty Glass

University Libraries

Please direct questions to Millie Mitchell
Director of Development, University Libraries

University of Nevada, Reno
Updated 29 March 2008