What do you think?
Rate this book
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories
Bret Harte (1836-1902) was born in New York but moved to California at a young age, following the death of his father and his mother's remarriage. He is best known for his short stories of the West, but he spent many years as a typesetter, school teacher, editor, and journalist, working for such well known publications as the "Overland Monthly" in San Francisco and "The Atlantic Monthly." As a child he was an avid reader, and took a strong liking to Charles Dickens. Many of Harte's stories and characters later served as models for thousands of Western novels and films. This collection contains the most popular stories of Bret Harte, such as "The Luck of Roaring Camp," "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," "M'liss," and "An Ingenue of the Sierras." The title story of this book was almost not published because it contained a prostitute character and some profanity, however Harte was adamant in its publication, and as a result, he played a significant part in further realism in American literature."
- GenresShort StoriesWesterns
252 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1968
About the author
Bret Harte
3,181 books64 followersPeople note American writer Francis Bret Harte for
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches
(1870), his best-known collection of his stories about California mining towns.
People best remember this poet for his short-story fiction, featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the Gold Rush. In a career, spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern United States to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but people most often reprinted, adapted, and admired his tales of the Gold Rush.
Parents named him after Francis Brett, his great-grandfather. Bernard Hart, paternal grandfather of Francis and an Orthodox Jewish immigrant, flourished as a merchant and founded the New York stock exchange. Henry, father of the young Francis, changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Later, Francis preferred that people know his middle name, which he spelled Bret with only one t.
An avid reader as a boy, Harte at 11 years of age published his first work, a satirical poem, titled "Autumn Musings", now lost. Rather than attracting praise, the poem garnered ridicule from his family. As an adult, he recalled to a friend, "Such a shock was their ridicule to me that I wonder that I ever wrote another line of verse". His formal schooling ended at 13 years of age in 1849.
People best remember this poet for his short-story fiction, featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the Gold Rush. In a career, spanning more than four decades, he wrote poetry, plays, lectures, book reviews, editorials, and magazine sketches in addition to fiction. As he moved from California to the eastern United States to Europe, he incorporated new subjects and characters into his stories, but people most often reprinted, adapted, and admired his tales of the Gold Rush.
Parents named him after Francis Brett, his great-grandfather. Bernard Hart, paternal grandfather of Francis and an Orthodox Jewish immigrant, flourished as a merchant and founded the New York stock exchange. Henry, father of the young Francis, changed the spelling of the family name from Hart to Harte. Later, Francis preferred that people know his middle name, which he spelled Bret with only one t.
An avid reader as a boy, Harte at 11 years of age published his first work, a satirical poem, titled "Autumn Musings", now lost. Rather than attracting praise, the poem garnered ridicule from his family. As an adult, he recalled to a friend, "Such a shock was their ridicule to me that I wonder that I ever wrote another line of verse". His formal schooling ended at 13 years of age in 1849.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 13, 2018
I have always heard of 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat' and 'The Luck of Roaring Camp' but I had never read a word of Bret Harte. I even live next to an elementary school named for him!
A neighbor lent me this volume and I must say that I was really surprised by what I found. I expected folksy, heart-warming tales of the old West, but man! that is not at all what is in these stories. Funny and edgy, tart and sad, these stories are very modern in their sensibility and the plots are way darker than I expected.
Why is he a forgotten writer?
A neighbor lent me this volume and I must say that I was really surprised by what I found. I expected folksy, heart-warming tales of the old West, but man! that is not at all what is in these stories. Funny and edgy, tart and sad, these stories are very modern in their sensibility and the plots are way darker than I expected.
Why is he a forgotten writer?
February 19, 2025
I found the stories uninteresting. Maybe just me. Could not keep my focus on this book. It took me three times as long to finish this book than my normal rate. I was constantly falling asleep.
June 30, 2025
The title story, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, and Mliss were amusing, but reading the other twenty stories about life in California mining camps became tedious.
Read
January 12, 2018Wow! These stories are legit good. Entertaining and just what I'm looking for regarding my comps.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews