Bret Harte
Born August 25, 1836
Albany, New York
Died May 5, 1902
Camberley, England
Writer and editor
"The only sure thing about luck is that it will change."
In 1868, Bret Harte burst onto the literary scene as a popular writer of tales set in California mining camps and boomtowns and as the founding editor of a new magazine called Overland Monthly. By 1871, he signed the highest paying publishing contract in American history to that time. Harte was known as a satirist (a writer who uses a humorous tone to criticize human characteristics) and a writer who specialized in regional stories. He carefully recreated distinct California settings, speech patterns of people drawn to mining districts, and details of clothing and manners from people of high society to everyday men and women trying to get rich or find work. Harte himself experienced the boom and bust of a gold rush: He went from being the highest-paid and most popular writer in America to experiencing a series of personal and professional failures within five years that would challenge him the rest of his life.
Aspiring Writer
Francis Brett Hart was born in Albany, New York, on August 25, 1836, to Henry and Elizabeth Hart.
