Date of Award

6-1928

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Literatures, Languages, and Cultures

Abstract

Bret Harte is not a lonely figure in our literature, but he is a unique one. His fame is identical with the nation's memory of early California, and it came about as the most natural thing in the world. Everybody's imagination had been fired by the California gold era and the field had been untouched by romancers; his material was timely to the moment. Dickens had just visited America and the fame of him and his work had penetrated very household; then had come the news of his death, and enormous space had been given to him in all the journals of the world, and new editions had crowded upon one another, until everyone had his Dickens. For a generation, men could not speak of the man with moderation. Even a critic like Moncure D. Conway could say of "Oliver Twist" and "The Old Curiosity Shop": "To this day I cannot help suspecting the sanity of one who does not concede that they are the two best novels ever written." One can see that the time was ripe for a California Dickens. There was a prepared audience ....... The reading public was educated to appreciate the type of work that Bret Harte was to give them.

Comments

A Thesis submitted partially to fulfill the requirements for The Degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, College of Journalism, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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