Mining and settlement in 1860s Nevada, prospecting and settlement in the Yukon Territory and Alaska 1897-1901, West Coast literary magazines in the early twentieth century, Pease family history

Lucius Curtis Pease (March 27, 1869-August 16, 1963), born in Winnemucca, Nevada and raised by grandparents in Charlotte, Vermont from the age of five after the death of his parents, made his mark on the world in many fields. Reporter, prospector, editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, his many careers spanned much of the century and took him from the frontier of territorial Alaska to the editorial rooms of the Newark (N. J.) Evening News. Known by the nickname Lute 1, Pease had come back to the West from Vermont after graduating from high school. Although he never fulfilled his aspiration to study art in Paris, his artistic and literary bent found many outlets for expression. Beginning as a reporter and artist for the Portland Oregonian in the 1890s, he was deeply involved with literature and journalism for the rest of his life. Even during the five years he spent hunting gold and adventure in the Yukon and Alaska, he enlivened the letters and diaries he sent home to relatives with his quick wit and his sketches of people and places. Upon his return from the North, he joined the staff of The Pacific Monthly, a literary magazine in Portland, eventually rising to the post of editor. Before the magazine's absorption by Sunset Magazine in 1912, Pease's intelligent and independent editing made it a journal of progressive reform and literary excellence. Following several years at loose ends, he joined the Evening News of Newark, New Jersey, in 1914. For the next forty years, he remained at the paper, capping a distinguished career with the receipt of a Pulitzer Prise in 1949. From his retirement in 1954 until his death in 1963, he devoted himself to fostering his skills as a painter of portraits and landscapes.1 This nickname is used throughout the collection to distinguish him from his father, with whom he shared first and middle names.

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