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*The Bonanza King author Gregory Crouch will discuss Comstock mining legend John Mackey, who got his start in the US as a destitute Irish immigrant brought to New York City in 1840 when he was 9 years old. Mackay grew up in the notorious Five Points slum, came of age amid the violent mayhem of the California Gold Rush, and rose to the full power of his manhood in the dangerous mines of the Comstock Lode beneath Virginia City, Nevada. *The extraordinary wealth John Mackay extracted from the Comstock Lode drove wild stock market frenzies in San Francisco, and launched his wife, Mary-Louise Mackay, on a meteoric social career among the finest European aristocrats. When John Mackay died in 1902, he was the fifth richest American. *In addition to the Bonanza King, Gregory Crouch is also the author of the true-life World War 11 flying adventure China's Wings and the mountaineering memoir Enduring Patagonia. Crouch has published stories in The Atlantic, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Time, the Wall Street Journal, and a host of other national and regional media.