The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte, Fiction, Westerns, Historical

In 1868, Bret Harte published "The Luck of Roaring Camp" in the Overland Monthly, a new publication from San Francisco of which Harte himself was the first editor. Intended to be a competitor to the well-established Atlantic Monthly, the Overland Monthly was looking for "tales of California romance." By "romance," of course, Harte didn't mean "hugs and kisses." He meant stories that would epitomize the grandeur, drama, and glory of old California. The story is about the birth of a baby boy in a 19th-century gold prospecting camp. The boy's mother dies in childbirth, so the men of Roaring Camp must raise it themselves. Believing the child to be a good luck charm, the miners christen the boy Thomas Luck. Afterwards, they decide to refine their behavior and refrain from gambling and fighting. Bret Harte, the future man of letters, attended school until only age thirteen. Later the editor of the Overland Monthly, a professor of literature at the University of California, and the Secretary of the California Mint, Harte is among one of the great writers of the 19th Century. His most entertaining and enduring tales are collected in The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales.