" Bret Harte
was something of a lion in a congenial English literary set, and he never
returned to America. He continued to write until his death at Camberly,
Surrey, in 1902. The tourist may find his grave in Frimley churchyard,
England.
WORKS.--Bret Harte was a voluminous writer. His authorized publishers have
issued twenty-eight volumes of his prose and one volume of his collected
poems. While his _Plain Language from Truthful James_, known as his
"Heathen Chinee" poem, was very popular, his short stories in prose are his
masterpieces. The best of these were written before 1871, when he left
California for the East. Much of his later work was a repetition of what he
had done as well or better in his youth.
_The Overland Magazine_, a San Francisco periodical, which Bret Harte was
editing, published in 1868 his own short story, _The Luck of Roaring Camp_.
This is our greatest short story of pioneer life. England recognized its
greatness as quickly as did America. The first two sentences challenge our
curiosity, and remind us of Poe's dictum concerning the writing of a story
(p. 299):--
"There was commotion in Roaring Camp. It could not have been a fight, for
in 1850 that was not novel enough to have called together the entire
settlement.
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