HARTE, Francis Bret, American novel ist and poet: b. Albany, N. Y., 25 Aug. 1839; d. Aldershot, England, 6 May 1902. In 1854 he went to California, attracted there by the gold excitement. He was first a teacher at Sonora, then tried mining, in which he was unsuccess ful. He next entered a printing office, and in 1857 was compositor on the San Francisco Golden Era. At that time he began to write short sketches, which appeared in the Golden Era, and soon attracted attention; he was in vited to join the staff of the Californian, to which he contributed a series of clever parodies on famous contemporary writers of fiction, later published as 'Condensed Novels.' In 1864 he was appointed secretary to the United States branch mint; in 1868 became editor of the Overland Monthly, for which he wrote
in volumes entitled 'Poems' (1871) ; 'East and West Poems> (1871) ; of the Foot Hills' (1874) ; and 'Some Later Verses' (1898). See TALES OF THE ARGONAUTS.
In estimating Harte's work it must be re membered that it was his rare good fortune to break new ground and to become the first literary interpreter of a life which with its primitive breadth and freedom, its striking con trasts of circumstance and character, offered singular opportunities to the novelist. That he ever did anything quite so good as his first group of stories and poems cannot be said, for his later volumes are marked, as a whose, by the repetition of well-worn motives and by declin ing spontaneity and power. Still, the average quality of his output remained high. Among qualities of his work those which perhaps most constantly impress the critical reader are his dramatic instinct, his keen insight into charac ter, his broad sympathy and his subtle and pervasive humor. Dealing for the most part with large, strongly marked, elemental types, as these develop and express themselves under conditions which give free play to instinct and passion, he does not indulge in lengthy analy ses or detailed descriptions. His men and women are sketched with a few strokes and left to work out their own personalities in speech and deed; and yet, such is the skill with which this is accomplished that they stand out before us as creatures of real flesh and blood. He did not purposely soften the shadows in his pictures; the sin and wretchedness of frontier life are frankly portrayed; none the less, there can be little doubt that consciously or uncon sciously he contrived to throw an idealizing glamour over the mine and t> camp and that many of his most lifelike and successful char acters are wrought in the imagination, though out of the stuff of fact. But it is here that we touch upon what is perhaps one of the finest qualities of his work—a quality not to be sepa rated from his tendency toward idealization. Though he dwelt habitually upon life's unex plained and inexplicable tragic complexities, he nevertheless suffused his stories with an atmos phere of charity, clear, sweet and wholesome. Consult Kozlay, Poems and Other Un collected Writings of Bret Harte> (1914) ; Mer win, of Bret Hart& (1911).
GEORGh EDWIN RIVES.