Interesting Facts About Bret Harte
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Bret Harte - poet, writer, dramatic yet faithful herald
of Californiais heroio age, was born in Albany, N. Y., His forbears, of English descent blended with Hebrew & Dutoh strains, posses sed culture & refinement. Bret Harte's boyhodd days were spent in a home perva ded with a passion for literature & his perfection of style as a writer was largely influenced by a Mother's keen, critical, inte lleotual faculty. Bret Harte was a precoci ous lad. At the age of 5 he burlesqued the rather bald language of his Primer. 6 he was reading Shake s peare & at 7 became a student of Dickens, whose writings markedly affected his whole At 14, during an 1llne ss of 2 months, he as- August 25th, 1836. At career. tonished his mother by learning to read Greek. His first poem, "Autumnal Musings,".published surrepti tiously in the New York "Sunday Atlas", was written School days ended at the age of 13& he immedia te ly entered a lawyer's office & became self at the age of 11. supporting before he was 16. In 1854 Bret Harte, with his sister, Margaret, came to California. Arriving in San Francisco via Nicaragua, he left the next morning for Oakland where his mother was living with her second husba nd, the courtly, culture d, gener ous Col. Andrew Williams, Oak- land's first Mayor. For a year Bret Harte made his home with them and dur ing that time, no doubt, had that gambling experience he so graphically depicts in In 1856 we find him a tutor at Alamo, in the San Ramon Valley; & next year, at the age of 21, a wells Fargo express- man in Humboldt County. His pre de cessor was shot through the arm by a high- wayman, his successor was killed. To be "held up" was a common occurrence & breakdowns & floods were alarmingly frequent, but Bret Harte bore a charmed life. This experience gave birth to such characters as "Yuba Bill," "Col. his "Bohemian Days in San Francisco. Starbottle," etc. Bret Harte, in these 2 impressionabl e years, conta cted California pioneer life in many of its varied colorful forms & his ke en, sympathetic insight, together with his amazing literary genius, uni que ly fitted him for its beau- tiful, effective & tru thful portrayal. His short session as scho ol teacher gave him a profound & sympathetic knowledge of children, magnificent ly uti- 11zed in "cressy", "The Youngest Prospector in Calave ras," etc. His story, "How I went to the Mines ," possesses the ear marks of autobiogra phy & is re- garded as such by his sisters. His editori al in the "Northern California" written during the absence of 1ts editor, scathing ly denouneing the murder of Indians, brought an angry mob together for the purpose of wrecking the office & hanging the editor. Bret Harte awaited their coming with a brace of pis- tols, but the timely arrival of a few U. S. Cavalrymen averted the danger. He returned to_San Francisco in 1857 & from the position of typesetter with the "Golden Era" he was qui ckly promo ted to the editorial room & thus began his On August 1lth, 1862 he married Miss Anna Griswold at San Rafael, & in 1864 was appointed Secretary of the California Mint, an office he held for 6 years. During this peri od he made the aequaintance of Rev. Starr King& Mark Twain. At Starr King's suggestion he wrote the noble poem "Reveille" that fired San Francisco with patriotic fervor in Civil War days, & it was in memory of S tarr King he wrote "Reli eving Guard," the finest of literary career. all his poetic efforts. of Bret Harte, Mark Twain magnanimous ly said, "Bret Harte trimmed & trained & schooled me patiently until he changed me from an awkward utterer of coarse grotesqueness to a writer of paragra phs & chapters that have found a certain favor in the eyes of even some of the ve overland Monthly" & its second mum- decentest people in the land. Bret Harte was the first editor of the ber, containing the story of "The Luck of Roaring Camp," made his literary reputation. It was followe d by his poem, "The Heathen Chine e." within a few weeks the fame of Bret Harte had spread over the entire English-speaking world. In 1871, tempt ing offers from the east conspired with his constitu- tional improvidence to remove him from his Mecca of the Argonauts to the Atlantic coast, where he was received with princely hospitality. In 1878, he was appointed U. S. Commercial Agent at Crefe ld , Prussia & in 1880 was trans ferred to the Consulship at Glasgow, Scotland. Deprived of this office in 1885 he went to London, where he labored indus trious ly at literary tasks until summond to the Great Beyond, May 5th, 1902. Bret Harte's accurate & masterly depiction of California early days in prose & poetry, together with other writings, made generous contributi on to the world's best literature. From the Darlene Thorne Collection |
