Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid for the Collection of Bret Harte Letters, 1860-1902
487
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Collection of Bret Harte Letters,
Date (inclusive): 1860-1902
Collection number: 487
Extent:
2 boxes (1 linear ft.)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Abstract: Bret Harte (1836-1902) settled in San Francisco in 1860 where he worked as a printer, clerk, and secretary in a government
office. He wrote short stories and became the first editor of the
Overland Monthly (1868-71) in San Francisco. The collection consists of correspondence, one literary manuscript, and some holograph fragments
by Harte.
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Language:
English.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including
copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds
the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold
the copyright.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
Additional Physical Form Available
A copy of the original version of this online finding aid is available at the UCLA Department of Special Collections for in-house
consultation and may be obtained for a fee. Please contact:
- Public Services Division
- UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections
- Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
- Box 951575
- Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
- Telephone: 310/825-4988 (10:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Pacific Time)
- Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
William Andrews Clark Library, 1966, transfer.
[Identification of item], Collection of Bret Harte Letters (Collection 487). Department of Special Collections, Charles E.
Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
4232712
Bret Harte was born Francis Brett Hart on August 25, 1836 in Albany, New York; at 11 he had a poem published in the
New York Sunday Morning Atlas; he left school and went to work at 13; traveled to California in 1854, settling in San Francisco in 1860; worked as a printer,
clerk, and secretary in a government office; published the short story, The Work On Red Mountain (later titled M'liss) in
1860; became first editor of the
Overland Monthly (1868-71) in San Francisco; published the story,
The Luck of Roaring Camp (1868) and the satiric verse parody,
Plain Language from Truthful James (Better Known as the Heathen Chinee) in 1870 in that journal; also became known for his stories, The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1869) and Tennessee's Partner (1869);
gained a U.S. government position in Germany in 1878, served as U.S. Consul at Glasgow, 1880-85, and then moved to London;
died on May 5, 1902 in Camberley, England.
Collection consists of correspondence, one literary manuscript, and some holograph fragments of writer Bret Harte. Of some
300 letters from Harte to various persons, there are 108 to his wife Anna Griswold Harte and to his son Francis King Harte,
107 to Alexander Boyd, a British artist who illustrated some of Harte's stories, and his wife, a writer. There are also eleven
letters to Thomas Edgar Pemberton. Also includes Bret Harte's manuscript for Colonel Starbottle's client.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902--Correspondence.
Authors, American 19th century--Archival resources.
Manuscripts for publication.
Willard Samuel Morse Collection of Ephemera Relating to Bret Harte (Collection 1019). Available at Department of Special Collections,
UCLA.