Bret Harte Biography

Bret Harte was an American writer; poet and journalist who’s most famous works were those involving the portrayal of the figures of Californian Gold Rush. He was named after Francis Brett, his great grandfather but he made one small change and preferred to spell his name ‘Bret’. His father was a wealthy trader and a founding member of the New York Stock Exchange. His school level education was erratic in nature and before long he dropped out in order to become a writer. He went to California and worked in a variety of jobs which gave him an insight into the way of life in the state during the gold rush. He worked for the newspaper ‘Northern Californian’ as an assistant editor but his stand on an incident forced him to leave the city since his personal safety was at stake. He worked as a writer for ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ and also helped in establishing ‘The Californian’, before becoming a founding member of ‘The Overlord Monthly’. One of his most famous stories, ‘The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches’ was published in ‘Overlord Monthly’. Later on, he was given a contract worth $10000 per year by ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ and it was an unprecedented amount offered to any writer at the time.