Dan Wilgus is the compositor (head typesetter) at the Daily Informer. After joining the New Underground, he steals an old printing press and movable type from the Informer offices, then uses them to print thousands of pamphlets in Buck Titus’s basement. The Minute Men send him to Trianon concentration camp at the same time as Doremus Jessup, and he ends up tragically dying there. The guards tell Jessup that Wilgus’s death was a suicide, but the novel implies that the guards actually might have tortured him to death.
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Dan Wilgus Character Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here
The timeline below shows where the character Dan Wilgus appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 18
...angrily starts writing an editorial that criticizes the government’s incompetence and malice. The newspaper’s typesetter, Dan Wilgus , worries that the editorial will get the whole staff shot, and he urges Jessup...
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Chapter 26
After the Informer finishes printing at 11 p.m., Dan Wilgus hides several pieces of eight-point movable type from the storeroom in his jacket. On his...
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Dan Wilgus has joined the New Underground less out of opposition to the government than out of...
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Chapter 30
...One day, he notices Shad Ledue following him on his route to Titus’s house. When Dan Wilgus arrives, he reports that Aras Dilley was prowling around outside the house in disguise. Jessup,...
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...they stick him in the back of a truck with Buck Titus, Truman Webb, and Dan Wilgus .
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...a lie. During his half-hour exercise walks in the yard, Jessup sees Buck Titus and Dan Wilgus (whose nose is crushed, and who looks partially paralyzed). In the morning, the guards tell...
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Chapter 38
...Coon declares that they are all free, because Haik has been captured. The crowd includes Dan Wilgus , Buck Titus, Julian and the Rev. Mr. Falck, Henry Veeder, John Pollikop, Truman Webb,...
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