Quintus Hopper of Nevada: the joys of research
The word count of my last novel was going to be larger than that of Moby-Dick, imagine that. I decided to do things differently - and ended up with two books instead.
I've worked on this last book for about three years. As it is a historical novel and my protagonist meets more than a few real-life people (such as Mark Twain, Sarah Winnemucca, Wovoka and Helen J. Stewart), I thoroughly enjoyed spending quite a bit of my life in the depths of history, researching this and that from 1848 until well into the 20th century. A particular joy was the discovery of online newspaper archives.
The Library of Congress, for example, gives you over 4000 digitized newspapers from 1756-1963, across states and often with complete daily editions - it is utterly fascinating. Pick a date, any date, and discover what people read just then, what they were told, how things were reported, what was on people’s minds, how they traveled, when coaches arrived, the cost of a hammer and a loaf of bread and everything in between.
Another brilliant site is California’s Digital Newspaper Collection - in particular the Daily Alta California was amazing research material for me (it is also my protagonist’s first place of employment). And sometimes, sometimes I managed to get in touch with nice folks at local village libraries who personally went through old files and sent me hugely helpful pdfs of long-gone articles. What came together were articles that not only informed (and sometimes steered) my novel, but that were veritable gems in their own right.
The novel’s protagonist Quintus Hopper starts out as a printer's devil (a printing apprentice) - and remains a typesetter, working for frontier newspapers, throughout his life. Being able to look up newspapers from any given date and discovering everything from headlines to local news and advertisements, was hugely illuminating. In fact, it was so fascinating that I started structuring my novel along certain events and articles - and then incorporated the actual articles into the novel.
Quite often in early frontier newspapering days, papers got their news not from journalists, but from ‘correspondents’ - regularly folks who would send in letters and then find their stories in print. Most of what was printed wasn’t researched or verified - but as long as it sold papers, it was printed. The prime reason for frontier papers was not to report the news, but first and foremost to boost the standing of whatever new mining town had come into being. Here are a few of the gems I’ve come across:
The Mountain Meadows massacre: News reached San Francisco in 1857 that a wagon train of emigrants had been massacred by native tribes. But the journalists at the ‘Daily Alta California’ did their homework and didn’t just believe the Mormons who had brought the news. As it turned out, not the Paiute had attacked the wagon train, but the Mormons themselves - a horrific story and to this day one of the darkest chapters in Mormon history.
The life and death of William ‘Lucky Bill’ Thorington’: I learned that this gambler had been at the very heart of what would eventually become the state of Nevada. The Placerville ‘Mountain Democrat’ article prints a very detailed letter sent by a local man from Carson Valley. Makes you feel like you’re right there in the thick of things.
The Transcontinental Railroad: A glowing 1969 editorial by the Carson City ‘Daily Appeal’ about the completion of the transcontinental railroad. They call it the ‘consummate triumph of enterprise and iron’. It’s hard for us to imagine just how distant the West was from the East before the railroad - and how much, and how dramatically, it changed just about everything.
The tale of the 126-year old 'Cave Indian': Many of the articles I discovered were about big moments in time - but often I also came across gems that were way out of left field and surprised and enticed so much that I couldn’t help but make them part off novel. This curious article from the Shermantown ‘White Pine Evening Telegram’ (Shermantown being one of many, many ghost towns) details the ‘Death of the oldest Inhabitant’. What a curious story, so fantastical with its fairy tale quality, that I absolutely wanted to bring my protagonist together with this old man. Loved writing that chapter.
The Prophet, the Ghost Dance... and the Wounded Knee Massacre: Did you know that the Paiute Indians had a prophet that, as acknowledged by a famed contemporary ethnographer, was absolutely on par with both Jesus and the Buddha? This prophet named Wovoka offered messages of non-violence and a peaceful and plentiful future for all. What ensued from those messages of peace is a tragedy to this day - and he is a man who should, I believe, receive a lot more recognition for what he stood for - and for what might have been if not for white man.
Upon finishing the first draft of the novel, I realized that it really did make for a very special reading experience. It gave readers the chance to live with the protagonist, while also discovering, thanks to the articles, what had actually been going on - and how it had been reported. Alas, I also realized that it had turned my novel into a book larger than Melville's Moby-Dick (a book which, in some curious way, plays its own important part in my novel).
I ended up removing all the articles. A rewrite or two later, I knew that no reader of the novel would miss the articles and, admittedly, it has not only made the novel shorter, but also given it a far more immersive flow.
Now here's the thing: When we're done writing and a work is published, our research most often simply ends up in a box - or is tossed. In the case of Quintus Hopper of Nevada, I wanted to find a way to make all of those frontier newspaper articles, as the relate so directly to the story, available to interested readers. And so I not only published the novel, but also a companion piece containing the articles and commentaries. Anyone just wanting to read the novel, will have an entirely fulfilling experience - but for the few (I expect) that wish to take a deeper look at those times, places and incidents (and how they were reported), will have a special, augmented experience.
I found it a cool way to make the novel less of a - err - whale, and still make use of all of that archival wealth from frontier newspapers that speak so directly from the past and to the novel and its protagonist.Â
Well, if you're curious, follow the links and read both novel and companion piece. As a reader of my Substack, of course, you know that you can also just hang back and wait for the next installment into your inbox as I keep sharing them right here about once a month. You find them all here.
On this note, I wish you a merry Sunday!
Cheers,
D