TWHP


Bret Harte, 1839-1902   

Bret Harte was one of California's first serious literary types. He moved to the state with his mother in 1854, trying his hand over the years as a miner and teacher before getting a job at the San Francisco Mint. He ran the facility until 1870, when he left to become a full-time writer. Along the way, he was forced to leave Humboldt County after opining in print that a recent massacre of indians could not be justified, especially in light of the killing of children. He became the first editor of the Overland Monthly, the state's first real magazine, and he went on to publish his writings country-wide; Harte's stories of the wild, far West captured the world's imagination and he achieved great fame. He moved to New York in 1871, and then to Boston; he became a United States consul in Germany in 1878, and was later transferred to Scotland. He finished his days in London, never returning to California.


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