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Francis Bret Harte (August 25, 1836–May 6, 1902) was an American author and
poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.
Born in Albany, New York, he moved to California in 1854, later working
there in a number of roles, including miner, teacher, messenger, and
journalist.
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Bret HarteHis first literary efforts, including poetry and prose, appeared
in The Californian, an early literary journal edited by Charles Henry Webb.
In 1868 he became editor of The Overland Monthly, another new literary
magazine, but this one more in tune with the pioneering spirit of excitement
in California. His story, "The Luck of Roaring Camp," appeared in the
magazine's second edition, propelling Harte to nationwide fame.
When word of Dickens's death reached Bret Harte in July of 1870, he
immediately sent a dispatch across the bay to San Francisco to hold back the
forthcoming publication of his Overland Monthly for twenty-four hours, so
that he could compose the poetic tribute, Dickens in Camp. This work is
considered by many of Harte's admirers as his masterpiece of verse, for its
evident sincerity, the depth of feeling it displays, and the unusual quality
of its poetic expression. The spirit of Dickens breathes through the poems
and stories of Bret Harte just as the spirit of Bret Harte breathes through
the poems and stories of Kipling.
Determined to pursue his literary career, he traveled back East, to New York
and eventually to Boston, where he continued writing poems, sketches, and
stories capturing the excitement of his earlier years in California.
As an established literary figure, he was appointed to the position of
United States Consul in the town of Krefeld, Germany in 1878 and Glasgow in
1880. In 1885 he settled in London. During the thirty years he spent in
Europe, he never abandoned writing, and maintained a prodigious output of
stories that retained the freshness of his earlier work. He died in England
in 1902 and is buried at Frimley.
In his autobiography, Mark Twain famously insults Harte, though he had been
dead four years already at the time of composition. Twain calls Harte and
his writing insincere. He gives light respect to "Luck of Roaring Camp" but
also criticizes the miners' dialect, claiming it never existed outside of
the story. Twain reserves his most damning statements for Harte's personal
life, especially after Harte left the West
Profile:
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Argonauts of North Liberty (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Bell-Ringer of Angel's (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: By Shore and Sedge (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Clarence (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Colonel Starbottle's Client (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Complete Poetical Works (New York: P. F. Collier and
Son, c1902) (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Condensed Novels (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Condensed Novels Second Series: New Burlesques (Gutenberg
text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Cressy (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Crusade of the Excelsior (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Devil's Ford (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Drift From Two Shores (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: East and West: Poems
page images at MOA
Gutenberg text
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: A First Family of Tasajara (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Flip: A California Romance (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Found at Blazing Star (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: From Sand Hill to Pine (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh, and Other Tales (Gutenberg
text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: In a Hollow of the Hills (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: In the Carquinez Woods (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Tales; With
Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers (Gutenberg
text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Maruja (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation, and Other Stories (Gutenberg
text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Mrs. Skagg's Husbands (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: On the Frontier (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Openings in the Old Trail (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: A Phyllis of the Sierras (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Pliocene Skull (1871), illust. by E. M.
Schaeffer (page images at LOC)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Poems (page images at MOA)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Poems and Stories (selected and edited for schools,
1912), ed. by Charles Swain Thomas (page images at MOA)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: A Protegee of Jack Hamlin's, and Other Stories (Gutenberg
text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Queen of the Pirate Isle (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Sally Dows, and Other Stories (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: A Sappho of Green Springs (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Selected Stories of Bret Harte (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Snow-Bound at Eagle's (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Stories in Light and Shadow (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Story of a Mine (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Susy, A Story of the Plains (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Tales of the Argonauts, and Other Sketches (Gutenberg
text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Tales of Trail and Town (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Tennessee's Partner (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Thankful Blossom (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Three Partners (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Trent's Trust and Other Stories (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: The Twins of Table Mountain (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Two Men of Sandy Bar: A Drama (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: Under the Redwoods (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: A Waif of the Plains (Gutenberg text)
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902: A Ward of the Golden Gate (Gutenberg text) |
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