Francis Bret Harte, an American author, born in Albany, N. Y., Aug. 25, 1839. His father, who was a teacher in a girls' seminary, died when he was very young. In 1854 Bret went to California, where for three years he wandered about among the mining camps, digging for gold, teaching school, and finally acting as an express messenger, but meeting with very little pecuniary success in any of these occupations. In 1857 he went to work in San Francisco as a compositor in the office of the " Golden Era." To this journal he contributed sketches of California life, many of which he himself put into type. After a time he was transferred to the editorial room, and still later he became editor of the "Californian," a literary weekly. In 1804 he was appointed secretary of the United States branch mint in San Francisco, which office ho held for six years. Several of his short poems, contributed to San Francisco papers during this time, were widely copied and universally admired. Among them are "The Society upon the Stanislau," "The Pliocene Skull," and " John Burns of Gettysburg." In July, 1868, the " Overland Monthly" was commenced, with Harte as its editor. To the August number he contributed "The Luck of Roaring Camp," a story of mining life idealized, which marks the beginning of his highest work as a writer.

In January, 1869, appeared in the same magazine "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," more realistic and in some respects more artistic than its predecessor. These were followed by numerous other stories in the same vein, but none of which have been quite so successful. In September, 1870, appeared his humorous poem entitled " Plain Language from Truthful James," popularly known as "The Heathen Chinee," which was very widely copied and quoted, and of which several illustrated editions and a facsimile of the original manuscript have been published. About this time he was appointed professor of recent literature in the university of California; but in the spring of 1871 he resigned that chair, as well as the editorship of the "Overland," and visited the Atlantic cities, fixing his residence at New York, His "Condensed Novels," originally contributed to the "Californian," in which he parodied the styles of the leading writers of fiction, were collected and published in New York in 1867 (new ed., Boston, 1871). His other independent publications are: "Poems"and "Luck of Roaring Camp and other Sketches" (Boston, 1870); "East and West Poems" and "Poetical Works," illustrated (1871); "Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands" (1872); and illustrated editions of single poems.

Since 1871 he has been a frequent contributor to the "Atlantic Monthly " and other periodicals.