A Brief Biography of Francis Brett Harte - 600 Words

Francis Brett Harte is a truly American author, poet, and short story writer. Harte was always interested in writing and almost always used his writing to fight social injustices, in particular, racism, slavery, and racial discrimination. He is most known for his short stories that were published in the Overland Monthly Magazine. He helped establish the local color genre of writing along side other talents, like, Mark Twain. He is also known for laying the ground work of another deeply American genre, the Western. He was not only deeply influential during his own time, but had a lasting impact on American pop-culture and art. In Andrew Carnegies autobiography he wrote about Harte with, â€Å"America had in Bret Harte its most distinctively national poet.(Carnagie) Bret was born in August of 1836 in Albany, New York to Henry and Elizabeth Harte. Henry Harte was a school teacher. Bret was a frail and unhealthy child, so he spent much of his indoor time reading. This long time passion manifested itself, when at age 11 Harte submitted â€Å"Autumn Musings†, a satirical poem, to a local newspaper that published it. Short of impressing his parents by getting a poem publish this action, actually, ended up embarrassing his father. His father passed away in 1853 and his family moved to Oakland, California where his mother re-married. Here, Harte worked as a miner and school teacher for a while, but grew bored. In 1860, an incident where drunken Union soldiers killed many unarmed native