on_l_top.gif (10335 bytes)

on_r_top.gif (10527 bytes)

Bret Harte

Haworth's Life
Haworth's Times
Haworth's Versatility
Haworth's Press
Haworth's Writings
Timeline
Gallery
NY Engagements
His Brother William
The Haworth Tradition

Home Contact Site Map

Francis Bret Harte
(1836-1902)


"The only sure thing about luck is that it will change."
Bret Hart    
              

Harte, Francis Bret (1836-1902) was born in Albany, NY on August 25, 1836. In 1852, at the age of eighteen he and his widower mother moved to California, where he worked as a miner, teacher, messenger for Wells Fargo, printer & journalist.

He later moved to San Francisco where he worked for the Golden Era before becoming the editor of the Northern Californian. In 1868 he became the first editor of the Overland Monthly and established it as one of America’s leading literary journals by publishing his own poems & stories in it. "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "Outcasts of Poker Flat" appeared there and brought him enormous success and recognition especially in the east where his stories of the American West were in great demand.

He was subsequently asked to contribute to a number of eastern publications. It was these stories that made California famous. He published his first collection of stories The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories in 1870 and the following year was paid $10,000 by Atlantic Monthly to produce twelve stories a year for the journal.

While editor of the Overland Monthly, he helped Sam Clemens get started after he moved to San Francisco by publishing his writings in the journal. He provided Sam with editorial assistance on The Innocents Abroad in exchange for being allowed to publish excerpts in the journal. They even collaborated on a play together called Ah Sin, but it eventually led to a bitter falling out between the two.

He served as Secretary of the U.S. California Branch Mint before moving to New York in 1871 and later to Boston. In 1878 he was appointed United States Counsul at Crefeld, Germany. He obtained a similar postion in Glasgow, Scotland two years later. He moved to London in 1885 and continued to publish collections of his stories. He died there in May, 1902 of throat cancer.

(click on photo to enlarge)
Bret harte as a young man-Photo-B&W.jpg (20396 bytes) The Overland Monthly Magazine Cover.jpg (21177 bytes) Bret Harte-as a young man-Photo-tinted.jpg (71337 bytes)
as a young man Overland Monthly,
First Editor
Portrait
Bret Harte sitting with hand on thigh-Photo-B&W.jpg (15528 bytes) Tenessee's Partner-Cover.jpg (24292 bytes) Bret Harte reading-Photo-tinted-Resized.jpg (41210 bytes)
Portrait Tennessee's Partner cover Portrait
Bret Harte-portrait- 1884 oil painting by John Pettie (1839-1893).jpg (27838 bytes) Bret Harte's Cabin across from Hangman Tree-Photo-B&W.jpg (25878 bytes) Bret Harte characiture-color.jpg (18391 bytes)
John Pettie Painting Hart's cabin across from Hangman's tree Caricature
Bret Harte-leaning on handd-Photo-B&W.jpg (33679 bytes) Bret harte & Mark Twain as depicted in Old Crow whiskey ad-color.jpg (44555 bytes) Bret Harte-Photo-B&W.jpg (33465 bytes)
Portrait Mark Twain & Bret Harte as depicted in Old Crow Whiskey ad Portrait

 Joseph Haworth & Bret Harte

In the fall of 1896, Joe acted in Bret Harte's Sue at Hoyt's Theatre.  Its title character is an innocent young mining camp girl who escapes her abusive father by agreeing to marry a man she doesn't love, the uncouth Ira Beadsley.  After three years of unhappy married life, a circus acrobat (still in tights and spangles) takes refuge in Sue's barn from the sheriff (Theodore Roberts).  A romantic idyll ensues, but when she learns that the acrobat intends to fasten a crime he has committed upon Ira, Sue returns to her husband and saves his good name.  The enchanting Annie Russell had a great success as Sue, and Joe forsook his heroic leading man image to play the dull-witted, selfish, dirty, and somewhat maudlin Ira Beadsley.

Top of page

right_cur.gif (3918 bytes)
on_l_bot.gif (3672 bytes)

Back Home Next

on_r_bot.gif (3629 bytes)