Harte, Bret (1836–1902)

US writer. He became a goldminer at 18 before founding the Overland Monthly (1868) in which he wrote short stories of the pioneer West, for example ‘The Outcasts of Poker Flat’ and ‘The Luck of Roaring Camp’, and poems such as The Heathen Chinee.

In 1871, with his popularity at its height, he went East and signed a contract with The Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 for 12 stories a year, the most money then offered to a US writer. He entered a creative slump, however, and from 1878 to 1885 served as US consul in Germany and Scotland, where he entertained the literary circles. He then settled permanently in England.