Walter Van Tilburg Clark, author of The Ox-box Incident, The City of Trembling Leaves, The Watchful Gods and Other Stories & The Track of the Cat, lived in Virginia City and is considered one of Nevada's most distinguished novelists. Born in 1909, he ranks as one of Nevada's most distinguished literary figures in the twentieth century, as well as a leading interpreter of the American West. Clark died in Virginia City, Nevada, in 1971.

The reason why The Track of the Cat is a novel of the first rank is that its author says something of universal significance. The black panther has always been there since the beginning of man's existence in the world. It will always be there, looming over man and always to be hunted though never killed."" - San Francisco Chronicle""Mr. Clark knows his Nevada, as The Oxbow Incident proved, and he knows how to tell a good hunting story."" - The New Yorker""This is the real beauty of Walter Clark's masterful prose--its wonderful capacity to evoke from the homeliest circumstances the quality of grief and loneliness that exists deep in or under every human effort."" - The New York Times""Clark's story is continuously and wonderfully exciting. He is able to bring before the reader with extraordinary vividness the clash of stubborn wills in the snowbound ranch house, the unpopulated mountain landscape, the snow and cold, and above all, the hunt itself."" - Yale Review