Bret Harte: 420 books

"Sally Dows," a novella set in Georgia during the Reconstruction, was compared to "Mr. Henry James's analytical studies of conduct" in a contemporary review in the New York Times. In addition to the title work, this 1893 collection includes "The Conspiracy of Mrs. Bunker," "The Transformation of Buckeye Camp," and "Their Uncle from California." 

Two young women, the daughters of an engineer who has secretly squandered the family finances in ill-advised mining schemes in Devil's Ford, find themselves romanced by two stockholders, who seek to keep the women ignorant of their father’s failure . . . and end up nearly destroying themselves in the process.

On October 10, 1856, about four hundred people were camped in Tasajara Valley, California. It could not have been for the prospect, since a more barren, dreary, monotonous, and uninviting landscape never stretched before human eye; it could not have been for convenience or contiguity, as the nearest...

There should have been snow on the ground to make the picture look more in season. But the American had lived in England long enough to know that this only happened in the pages of a holiday magazine. On the 24th of December, he cheerfully accepted the low, brooding sky, and the delicate tracery of...

In San Francisco the rainy season had been making itself a reality to the wondering Eastern immigrant. There were short days of drifting clouds and flying sunshine, and long succeeding nights of incessant downpour, when the rain rattled on the thin shingles or drummed on the resounding zinc of pioneer...

The sun was going down on the Carquinez Woods. The few shafts of sunlight that had pierced their pillared gloom were lost in unfathomable depths, or splintered their ineffectual lances on the enormous trunks of the redwoods. For a time the dull red of their vast columns, and the dull red of their cast-off...

Innkeeper Seth Collinson had made his way west in advance of his wife Sadie for financial reasons. Once he arrives and settles in, he hears word that she has died. When Sadie makes an appearance one night, Seth is unsure whether he's hallucinating or experiencing a supernatural encounter.

This 1896 collection is by "the creator of a new literature that was purely American" (the New York Times). In addition to the title story, included are: "A Yellow Dog," "A Mother of Five," "Bulger's Reputation," "In the Tules," "A Convert of the Mission," "The Indiscretion of Elsbeth," and "The Devotion of Enriquez."

In addition to the title story, this 1873 collection includes "How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar," "The Princess Bob and Her Friends," "The Iliad of Sandy Bar," "Mr. Thompson's Prodigal," "The Romance of Modrono Hollow," "The Poet of Sierra Flat," and "The Christmas Gift that Came to Rupert."

It may be remembered that it was the habit of that gallant “war-horse” of the Calaveras democracy, Colonel Starbottle, at the close of a political campaign, to return to his original profession of the Law. Perhaps it could not be called a peaceful retirement. The same fiery-tongued eloquence and...

I There was a slight jarring though the whole frame of the coach, a grinding and hissing from the brakes, and then a sudden jolt as the vehicle ran upon and recoiled from the taut pole-straps of the now arrested horses. The murmur of a voice in the road was heard, followed by the impatient accents of Yuba Bill, the driver.

Christmas is the most famous holiday of the year, and the word itself evokes images of Santa Claus, reindeer, snow, Christmas trees, egg nog and more. At the same time, it represents Christianity's most important event, the birth of the baby Jesus. Instantly, well known Christmas carols ring in your...