Francis Bret Harte, born Francis Brett Hart on 25 August 1836 in Albany, New York, and dead on 5 May 1902 in Camberley, Surrey, England, was the first American writer to make the Gold Rush West seem not merely picturesque or exotic but worthy of a literature of its own. Before Harte, the Pacific frontier had often appeared in Eastern writing as a distant field of adventure, speculation, and caricature. Harte helped g…
“Everywhere the body is worshipped. Beside them we are but unsubstantial spirits.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Folk & Ballad Poets, Light Verse Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Longing, Irony
In the last week of December 1898, an aging schoolteacher in California completed a poem that would transform American literature and launch a national debate about labor, justice, and the human cost of industrial progress. Within weeks, Edwin Markham's "The Man with the Hoe" catapulted him from obscurity to international fame, earning him recognition as the "Dean of American Poetry" and the "Laureate of Labor." His…
“The crest and crowning of all good, life's final star, is Brotherhood.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Nature Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Peace
