Francis bret harte biography of albert
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Harte accepted the position of United States Consul in the town of Krefeld, Germany in May 1878. His bold article criticizing the massacre of Native Americans at Mud Creek forced him to leave the town.
Rise to Prominence
Harte's breakthrough came with the publication of his "Condensed Novels" in several magazines. From the start, the marriage was rocky.
He declined, however, to invite them to join him, nor did he return to the United States to visit them. Skaggs's Husbands" (1873) and "Colonel Starbottle's Client" (1892). By his relatives and early friends he was called Frank; but soon after beginning his career as an author in San Francisco, he signed his name as “Brett,” then as “Bret,” and finally as “Bret Harte.” “Bret Harte,” therefore, is in some degree a nom de guerre, and it was commonly supposed at first, both in the Eastern States and in England, to be wholly such.
His handwriting was small, firm and graceful. He spent the next few years struggling to publish new work or republish old, and delivering lectures about the gold rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction.
Francis Brett Harte, named after his great-grandfather, Francis Brett, was born at Albany in the State of New York, on August twenty-fifth, 1836.
The winter of 1877-1878 was particularly hard for Harte and his family. During the 24 years that he spent in Europe, he never abandoned writing and maintained a prodigious output of stories that retained the freshness of his earlier work.
He died in Camberley, England in 1902 of throat cancer, and is buried at Frimley.
Achievements
Harte was an American writer who helped create the local-colour school in American fiction.
Works
Membership
Member of the Bohemian Club
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Connections
Harte married Anna Griswold on August 11, 1862 in San Rafael, California.
Sources
Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com
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He was named Francis Brett Hart after his great-grandfather, Francis Brett. When he was young his father, Henry, changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Some suggested that she was handicapped by extreme jealousy, while early Harte biographer Henry C.Merwin privately concluded that she was "almost impossible to live with".
Francis Bret Harte
author
Francis Brett Hart, known as Bret Harte was an American short story writer and poet, best remembered for his short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush.
He lectured extensively on California humor.
Among his writings were parodies and satires of other writers, including The Stolen Cigar-Case featuring ace detective "Hemlock Jones", which Ellery Queen praised as "probably the best parody of Sherlock Holmes ever written".
He was determined to pursue his literary career and traveled back East with his family in 1871 to New York and eventually to Boston where he contracted with the publisher of The Atlantic Monthly for an annual salary of $10,000.
He guarded treasure boxes on stagecoaches for a few months, then gave it up to become the schoolmaster at a school near Sonora.
In 1885, he settled in London. In 1854, he moved with his sister to San Francisco, where his writings began to take shape.
California Experiences
From 1858, Harte lived in Uniontown, Humboldt Bay, working odd jobs until becoming a reporter for the newly established "Northern Californian" in 1869.
He later served as Consul in Glasgow, Scotland, and received acclaim during his visits to London. His short story "The Luck of Roaring Camp" catapulted him to fame, and subsequent publications solidified his reputation as a master storyteller.
Return to the East Coast
In 1871, Harte embarked on a triumphant journey to the East Coast, leaving California behind.
Throughout his time in Europe, he regularly wrote to his wife and children and sent monthly financial contributions.
He was hired as editor of The Golden Era in the spring of 1860, which he attempted to make into a more literary publication.