Harte

Harte, Francis Bret (b. 1839), a distinguished American writer and poet, was born at Albany in the state of New York. He received very little education, and after the death of its head the family went to California. Here Bret Harte set up a school, but afterwards became successively printer, editor, and professor of literature in the university of California. From 1864 to 1870 he was in the United States branch Mint at San Francisco,. and in 1868 became editor of the Overland Monthly.

His name first became widely known in the following year by his humorous verses, Plain Language from Truthful James, now commonly known as The Heathen Chinee. In 1871 Bret Harte settled in New York. He afterwards went to Europe, being United States consul at Crefeld in 1878-80, and at Glasgow from the latter year till 1885, after which he lived chiefly in London.