Bret Harte, as he is familiarly known, was born in Albany, New York, in
1836. At fifteen he wandered to California, the state which has so
vividly colored his best known short stories. The first three years he
was there, for a living, he taught school, and, as a pastime, like
every one else in California at that time, he dug for gold.
He then entered the office of the _Golden Era_ as a compositor, but
soon began to write articles for the paper. These attracted favorable
notice and he was made assistant editor-in-chief.
His ready imagination was stirred by the teeming, adventuresome life
about him and he began to put his ideas into short stories with the
mellow background of the golden state of California. Poe and Hawthorne
had made the short story a distinct type. Now Bret Harte, less artistic
and careful in his style, followed their lead with short stories to
which he added the new idea of coloring brilliantly the setting of the
story with the atmosphere of a certain locality.
From 1868-1870 he edited the _Overland Monthly_ in which appeared his
best known short stories, "The Luck of Roaring Camp," "The Outcasts of
Poker Flat," and "Tennessee's Partner," each of which presented
stirring scenes of the early gold-seeking days of California. Their
charm lies in his emphasis on the manners and actions of a picturesque
community.
The material of his stories is romantic, melodramatic, often almost
shocking. He handled it, however, with humor, irony, or pathos. He was
a realist who pictured, marvelously, the life about him as he saw it.
In 1870 Mr. Harte was made professor of recent literature in the
University of California. After 1878 he held consular appointments; in
Germany 1878-1880, in Scotland 1880-1885. After 1885 he lived in
England until his death in 1902.