The Irrepressible David F. Day

The Irrepressible David F. Day is a biography of a newspaperman who took pleasure in a fight. David Frakes Day edited the Solid Muldoon in Ouray, Colorado, and later The Durango Democrat. The description calls him the most hated and loved newspaperman of the late nineteenth century, adding that this was exactly the honor an editor of his time would have wanted.

Day loved a no-holds-barred controversy and jumped into any literary fray. He believed he was fearlessly fighting for truth and justice, though his writing was as caustic and stinging as any of his day. Some of it was great humor, as long as you happened to be on his side of the issue.

His way with words made enemies for life. He was threatened but never coerced, and his quips and comments were often read and quoted in other papers and by prominent politicians. Duane Smith tells this at 216 pages, and Open Library lists the book as a 2010 edition from Western Reflections Publishing Company, with the Solid Muldoon among its subjects.

This biography is for anyone curious about the frontier press, where editors fought with rivals and public figures in print. Colorado historians and Ouray and Durango locals will recognize the papers by name. Journalism students will see how personality and politics drove a small-town paper. General readers who like a colorful character will enjoy Day's reputation for sharp humor. The book assumes no background in newspaper history, only a taste for a good argument carried on with a pen.

Duane Smith has written about Colorado's people and places for decades, and this biography fits beside his books on Silverton, Crested Butte and the narrow gauge railroad. Here he turns from towns to a single personality, which is a different kind of challenge. We list nine of his books in our catalogue. His author page tells what we know about his teaching and writing career, and links to the rest of his shelf.

More about Duane A. Smith →

The Solid Muldoon was a weekly newspaper in Ouray, Colorado, founded on September 5, 1879, by David F. Day, according to Wikipedia. Its name echoes a hoax from two years earlier. George Hull buried a man-made figure near Beulah, Colorado, in 1877, and about three months later it was dug up and put on display, first in Pueblo and then as far as New York City.

Ouray itself was a young town. Wikipedia says prospectors arrived in 1875 and that the town is named for Chief Ouray of the Utes. Its mining neighbors included Silverton, to the south, and the San Juan silver and gold country surrounding it.

Day's later home, Durango, was a creation of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, which founded the town in 1880 and reached it on August 5, 1881, according to the railroad's own history. That is the town where, the description says, Day went on to edit The Durango Democrat.

Source: Wikipedia, Solid Muldoon