Publisher's Synopsis
A First Family of Tasajara was published in 1892. By that time, Harte was living in London, sponsored by the wealthy Mrs. Van de Velde. According to Harte's family, he read Shakespeare at six, Dickens at seven, and Montaigne at age eight, though he attended school only until age 13. A First Family of Tasajara is the story of 'Lige Curtis, thought to be a "ne'er do well" around his Contra Costa County (northern California) town of Sidon -- a forsaken place where the post comes 'round only once a week.
Bret Harte is the editor, writer and friend of whom Mark Twain wrote, "He trimmed and schooled me patiently until he changed me from an awkward utterer of coarse grotesqueness to a writer of paragraphs and chapters." Harte hired Twain to write a story a week for the Californian in 1865, a time when Twain was an unknown, relatively untried writer. The author of "The Luck of Roaring Camp," and "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" ended up creating a part of literary history that's still treasured today; perhaps it's the most enduring legacy of "California's Gold."
