Bret Harte

During his prolific writing career, Bret Harte helped to invent the literary myth of the “Wild West,” with its colorful cast of gamblers, prospectors, and saloon keepers. Harte was at the forefront of the regionalist trend in American literature, which aimed to capture the distinctive dialects, customs, and terrains of specific regions of the United States. His vivid evocation of the rugged lifestyle of California’s mining camps fascinated readers who had never ventured west. Stories such as “The Luck of Roaring Camp” (1868) and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” (1869) brought him international fame.

After relocating to the East Coast in 1871, Harte’s literary career flagged. He eventually settled in London, where he continued to publish tales of gold rush-era California. Writing to his British liter-ary agent in 1893, Harte recalled how the Scottish artist John Pettie had struggled with his “unaccommodating features and evasive expression” while painting this portrait.