The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches.

HARTE, Francis Bret.

$750.00

Item Number: 139515

Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co, 1870.

First edition, first issue of Harte’s seminal California work without the story “Brown of Calaveras.” BAL 7246. Octavo, original dark green cloth with gilt titles to the spine. In very good condition. Ownership name. Housed in a custom half morocco and folding chemise slipcase.

First published in the August 1868 issue of the Overland Monthly, The Luck of Roaring Camp launched Harte's career, propelling him to fame in the States and throughout Europe. The story of a small struggling mining town located in the foothills of the California mountains at the time of the gold rush, the work was first published in book form in the present compilation by James T. Fields of Fields, Osgood, & Co. very close to the time that Harte's poem "The Heathen Chinee" was published. Those simultaneous publications caused Harte's popularity to skyrocket nearly overnight and Fields offered Harte a $10,000 exclusive contract to contribute to The Atlantic Monthly.