Bret Harte (1836-1902) was born in Albany, New York, and moved to California at the age of nineteen. He helped
to found and edited The Overland Monthly, the major literary publication of the American West. He wrote
numerous stories, poetry and essays over the course of a thirty-five-year literary career.
Scharnhorst, Gary (Ed.) : University of New Mexico
Gary Scharnhorst is professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He has published several books on
American literature.
Review
"Mr. Harte can do the best things."
--Charles Dickens
Publisher Web Site, January, 2003
Summary
Bret Harte was at the forefront of western American literature, paving the way for other writers, including
Mark Twain. For the first time in one volume, The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Writings brings together not only
Harte's best-known pieces including "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat,"
but also the original transcription of the famous 1882 essay "The Argonauts of '49" as well as a selection
of his poetry, lesser-known essays, and three of his Condensed Novels-parodies of James Fenimore Cooper, Charles
Dickens, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.