6 BRET HARTE.
the affectionate prediction of Starr King ; for, since
that day, Bret Harte's fame has, to borrow the
language of his admiring German translator,
" extended from the coasts of the Pacific Ocean to
the English coast of the North Sea. His works
have drawn hearts to him wherever the language
of Shakespeare, of Milton, and Byron is spoken."
A man who has so many readers must needs
inspire a kindly curiosity to know something of the
antecedents in a life which has given such generous
promise of nobler works to come. Mr. Harte was
born at Albany, New York, in 1839. He was
christened Francis Bret Harte; but his second
name,—an old family one,—was that by which he
was familiarly known among home friends and
acquaintances. Later in life, the initial of his
Christian name was dropped altogether, and the
world learned to know and love him by the some¬
what crisp title of " Bret Harte."
Young Harte grew up surrounded by refining
influences ; his father was a teacher of girls, and a
ripe and cultured student withal. Left fatherless,
Harte wandered off to California in 1854, dazzled
with the golden visions which then transfigured
that distant land; and, won by the fantastic
romance which stories of the early Spanish occu¬
pation, sudden wealth, surprising adventure, and
novel life and scenery invested the country, he cast
Permalink: http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/r76fn
