More than 100 years after his first short stories began to appear in the late 1850s, Western writer Bret Harte remains thoroughly embedded in the American literary tradition-the creator of some of our most venerable literary traditions. Since Harte, Western gamblers must have some of the self-contained poise, readiness, and chivalry of Jack Hamlin. The schoolmarms owe much to Harte's Miss Mary, created long before Molly Wood from The Virginian. A master of prose, economy and humor, Hart influenced the whole local color school, and while he did not invent the short story, he had an enormous influence in popularizing it through the expanding magazine trade. Explore Gold Rush California in these classic chronicles of the old West. Includes these short stories: The Luck of Roaring Camp, Tennessee's Partner, The Idyl of Red Gulch, How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar, Brown of Calaveras, Miggles, A Passage in the Life of Mr. John Oakhurst, and The Outcasts of Poker Flat.