Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE [Illustration: Bret Harte] The Gale Library of Lives and Letters American Writers Series THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CALIFORNIA PIONEERS BY HENRY CHILDS MERWIN WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1911 REPUBLISHED BY GALE RESEARCH COMPANY, BOOK TOWER, DETROIT, 1967 COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY HENRY CHILDS MERWIN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED _Published September 1911_ Library of Congress Card Number: 67-23887 TO Anne Amory Merwin THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED PREFACE It is a pleasure for the Author of this book to record his indebtedness to others in preparing it. Mrs. T. Edgar Pemberton, and Messrs. C. Arthur Pearson, Limited, the publishers of Pemberton's Life of Bret Harte, have kindly consented to the quotation from that interesting book of several letters by Mr. Harte that throw much light upon his character. Similar permission was given by Mr. Howells and his publishers, the Messrs. Harper and Brothers, to make use of Mr. Howells' account of Bret Harte's visit to him at Cambridge; and of this permission the Author has availed himself with a freedom which the Reader at least will not regret. Professor Raymond Weeks, President of the American Dialect Society, Professor C. Alphonso Smith, Mr. Albert Matthews, and others whose names are mentioned on page 326, have lent their aid in regard to the Pioneer language, and Ernest Knaufft, Bret Harte's nephew, has not only furnished the Author with some information about his uncle's early life, but he has also read the proofs, and has made more than one valuable suggestion which the Author was glad to adopt. It is only fair to add that Mr. Knaufft does not in all respects agree with the Author's estimate of Bret Harte's character. Another critic, Prescott Hartford Belknap, has put his fine literary taste at the service of the book, and has saved its writer from some mistakes which he now shudders to contemplate. Most of all, however, the Author is indebted to his accomplished friend, Edwin Munroe Bacon, who, though much engaged with important literary work of his own, has read the book twice, once in MS. and once in print,--a signal, not to say painful proof of friendship which the Author acknowledges with gratitude, and almost with shame. H. C. M. CONTENTS I. BRET HARTE'S ANCESTRY 1 II. BRET HARTE'S BOYHOOD 13 III. BRET HARTE'S WANDERINGS IN CALIFORNIA 18 IV. BRET HARTE IN SAN FRANCISCO 32 V. THE PIONEER MEN AND WOMEN 53 VI. PIONEER LIFE 85 VII. PIONEER LAW AND LAWLESSNESS 120