Bret Harte's California: Letters to the Springfield Republican and Christian Register, 1866-67

170 Pages Indexed. In 1866 Bret Harte had been in California for twelve years s. He had gained a local reputation as a writer of stories, poems, and newspaper articles. This book contains the essays he wrote for two Massachusetts newspapers. It was largely through these pieces that he came to the attention of Eastern audiences. In just five years he would become the highest paid author in America. The letters, most of them never reprinted since their initial publication, bring a fresh perspective to Harte scholarship and to the study of Western American literature. Harte adopts the tone of an expatriate in a strange land and largely undercuts the California paradise mythology. His comments on disasters, weather, politics, racism, and religious and cultural affairs provide a vivid record of daily life in San Francisco, whose hardness and skepticism typified the too material culture of California. This volume will be of importance to all readers with an interest in the history andliterature of the West.…