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V4 2001 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 26, June 24, 2001, Article 11 QUIZ ANSWER: MYSTERY MINT EMPLOYEE What employee of the San Francisco Mint gained fame as an author?: The answer is Bret Harte (1836-1902). Harte was born in Albany, NY. His father died in 1845. His mother remarried and moved to California in 1853. In 1854 Bret and his sister Margaret made the journey west to join their mother. He held many jobs to support himself, working as a miner, school teacher, express messenger, printer, and journalist. About 1864 he was appointed Secretary of the U.S. Mint, a position he held until 1870. His first love was writing, however - especially poetry. During his time at the mint he published a number of important works. In 1866 he wrote a volume entitled "Outcroppings of California Verse," In 1867 "The Lost Galleon" appeared; in 1869 "The Heathen Chinee," and in 1870 "The Luck of Roaring Camp". In 1871 he moved back east to Boston and continued his literary career. He signed a contract with The Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 for 12 stories a year, the highest figure offered an American writer up to that time. In 1878 he began a new career as a diplomat, with an appointment as United States consul in Germany. He served in various European posts and died in London in 1902. Congratulations to John Burns, who came up with the answer unassisted during a telephone conversation. Pete Smith and Joel Orosz came up with the correct answer when the question was posed by email to NBS Board members. The first (and only!) E-Sylum reader to respond correctly was Ron Guth, who added: "Here are two omitted lines from his first meeting with Mark Twain. "His head was striking. He had the curly hair, the aquiline nose, and even the aquiline eye -an eye so eagle-like that a second lid would not have surprised \ me - of an unusual and dominant nature." The following web pages have more background information: http://www.underthesun.cc/Classics/Harte/ http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/18661913/lit/harte.htm http://www.traverse.com/people/dot/harte_anxiety.html Hoping that more about Harte's time at the mint may be waiting to be found in "Selected Letters of Bret Harte", a book edited by Gary Scharnhorst (University of Oklahoma Press), I looked up the author and emailed him a question. His reply: "I'm also a coin collector--I wish I had a more detailed answer to your questions. None of Bret Harte's letters I've ever seen mention his work at the SF Mint in any detail. (The joke went around that Harte was paid $250 a month for signing his name twice a day there.) His job was largely a sinecure, it seems."

Wayne Homren, Editor

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