Bret Harte

Writer

• Born: August 25, 1836
• Birthplace: Albany, New York
• Died: May 6, 1902
• Place of death: Camberley, Surrey, England

American short-story writer

Biography

Francis Brett Harte, who attained fame with two short stories and a humorous poem, is best known in literary history for his short stories of the West. Of Jewish, Dutch, and English descent, Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, in 1836. His indigent parents moved from city to city in the East until, after the death of the father, his mother remarried and moved to California; Harte and his sisters followed her, and during the next few years he was engaged in school teaching, typesetting, mining, politics, and finally journalism.

In 1857, Harte became a typesetter on the Golden Era in San Francisco. Though serving in a nonliterary capacity, he wrote poems and local-color sketches on the side, and in 1865 he edited a book of Western verse, Outcropping. In 1868, he was made editor of the newly founded Overland Monthly in San Francisco. The second issue contained his story “The Luck of Roaring Camp,” and in January, 1869, “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” appeared in the same magazine. Though both caught the approving attention of readers in the East, the accidental publication of his poem “Plain Language from Truthful James” (familiarly known as “The Heathen Chinee”) produced his greatest popularity. It resulted in an offer, which he accepted, of $10,000 to write for The Atlantic Monthly for a year, and in 1871 he left for the East. The volume East and West Poems appeared that same year. However, his work soon declined in popularity, and, running into debt after the failure of a magazine venture, he entered the United States consular service. After posts in Germany and Scotland, he lost his political appointment in 1885 and moved to London, where he remained, isolating himself from his past, until he died at Camberley, Surrey, on May 5, 1902.

Harte’s prose works as well as his verse tend toward the melodramatic, and they are often poorly constructed. However, Harte provided a sentimental point of view of the West that suited contemporary preconceptions among Eastern and British readers. Despite the criticism leveled at it, Harte’s sentimental depiction of the West became a standard that lasted far beyond his lifetime. Some of his stories and characters were the original models for the stereotype features that were copied in thousands of subsequent Western novels and filled hundreds of Saturday-afternoon film screens. Along with artists such as Frederick Remington and Charles Russell, Harte created an American West that found favor around the world for generations. The works of these men continue to influence many later writers and artists who draw on images of the West.

Bibliography

Barnett, Linda D. Bret Harte: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980. With a brief introduction outlining the historical directions of Harte scholarship and criticism, this work provides a good annotated bibliography and checklist through 1977.

Duckett, Margaret. Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964. Duckett’s book is an intriguing and carefully documented history of the friendship and literary association of Twain and Harte and their eventual falling out and feud. Includes illustrations and a bibliography through 1963.

Hall, Roger. “Annie Pixley, Kate Mayhew, and Bret Harte’s M’Liss.” ATQ, n.s. 11 (December, 1997): 267-283. Discusses the struggle in 1878 over the rights to M’Liss, a play based on a story by Bret Harte; claims that the struggle indicates the chaotic state of copyright laws, contracts, and play “pirates” in the late nineteenth century.

Morrow, Patrick. Bret Harte. Boise, Idaho: Boise State College, 1972. This brief but excellent study analyzes Harte’s major work in both literature and criticism. Although concise, it is a very helpful introduction. Supplemented by a select bibliography.

Morrow, Patrick. Bret Harte, Literary Critic. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1979. Morrow surveys and analyzes what he considers a very neglected part of Harte’s work, his literary criticism. He establishes Harte’s significance in the “local color” movement. Contains a useful bibliography of primary sources.

Morrow, Patrick. “Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and the San Francisco Circle.” In A Literary History of the American West. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University, 1987. This important chapter covers the contributors to the Western journals between 1865 and 1875, placing emphasis on Harte.

Nissen, Axel. Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000. This scholarly biography provides a new assessment of the life and achievements of the writer.

O’Connor, Richard. Bret Harte: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. A lively, anecdotal, and gossipy account limited to Harte’s life, this work is not critical in focus. It does list Harte’s best-known literary characters.

Scharnhorst, Gary. Bret Harte. New York: Twayne, 1992. A critical biography of Harte, providing analyses of stories from four different periods of his life, fully informed by critical reception of Harte’s work. An afterword summarizes Harte’s critical reputation.

Scharnhorst, Gary. Bret Harte: A Bibliography. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1995. An excellent tool for the student of Harte.

Scharnhorst, Gary. Bret Harte: Opening the American Literary West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000. A study of the writer/editor and his struggle to make the West part of the wider American culture.

Scharnhorst, Gary. “Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and the Literary Construction of San Francisco.” In San Francisco in Fiction: Essays in a Regional Literature, edited by David Fine and Paul Skenazy. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. Discusses Harte’s acceptance of the Eastern canon’s taste in such stories as “The Idyl of Red Gulch” and his romanticized depiction of San Francisco as a rough-and-tumble boomtown in several late stories.

Stevens, J. David. “’She War a Woman’: Family Roles, Gender, and Sexuality in Bret Harte’s Western Fiction.” American Literature 69 (September, 1997): 571-593. A discussion of gender in Harte’s western fiction; argues that what critics have labeled sentimental excess in Harte’s fiction is in fact his method of exploring certain hegemonic cultural paradigms taken for granted in other Western narratives; discusses stories that deal with the structure of the family and how they critique gender roles.

Stewart, George R. Bret Harte, Argonaut and Exile. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1964. Stewart’s is the most scholarly and highly regarded of Harte’s biographies. It focuses on Harte’s life and defends the writer’s achievements against his detractors.

Stoneley, Peter. “Rewriting the Gold Rush: Twain, Harte, and Homosociality.” Journal of American Studies 30 (August, 1996): 189-209. An examination of authority and gender in gold rush fiction. From the perspective of poststructuralist theories of difference, explores the partnership of Mark Twain and Bret Harte; situates the Harte-Twain relationship within a broader network of late nineteenth century.