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What Do I Read Next?
(Short Stories for Students)
The Best of Bret Harte, edited by Wilhelmina Harper in 1947, contains the author's most famous short stories, including "The Luck of Roaring Camp."
Franklin Walker's 1939 study San Francisco's Literary Frontier details the development of American writers in the West and evaluates Harte within the context of his peers.
Roughing It, Mark Twain's 1872 memoir, is an account of life hi Virginia City, Nevada, during the silver mining boom of the 1860s. At one time Twain and Harte were close friends and both men worked as journalists on the mining frontier. Stylistically, they shared an ability to utilize local color and vernacular to create works of enduring fiction based on fact.
Kevin Starr's 1973 history, Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915, is an excellent study of nineteenth-century California and the role it has played in defining the American dream.
The Shirley Letters From the California Mines 1851-1852 is a collection of writings by Louise Clappe. Using the pseudonym Dame Shirley, Clappe authored a series of letters to her sister in the East about life during the Gold Rush. An important book as a historical source and an interesting companion to the fiction of Bret Harte.