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diff --git a/12337-h/12337-h.htm b/12337-h/12337-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..20bcb47 --- /dev/null +++ b/12337-h/12337-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,326 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<meta content="pg2html (binary version 0.16rc2)" + name="generator"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + Dickens in Camp, + by Bret Harte. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; } + p { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1em; } + center { padding: 0.8em;} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12337 ***</div> + +<div style="height: 8em;"></div> + +<h1> + DICKENS IN CAMP +</h1> +<center><b> + <i>BY BRET HARTE</i></b> +</center> +<center> + WITH A FOREWORD BY +<br> +<b> + <i>Frederick S. Myrtle</i> +</b> +</center> + +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/inset.png" width="125" height="190" +alt=""> +</center> + +<center><b> + <i>San Francisco</i> +<br> + JOHN HOWELL<br> + 1922.</b> +</center> + + +<hr class="full"> + +<a name="2H_FORE"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<div style="height: 4em;"></div> + +<a name="image-0002"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/head1.png" width="499" height="213" +alt="Decorative Header"> +</center> + +<h2> + <i>F O R E W O R D</i> +</h2> +<hr> +<p> + "Dickens In Camp" is held by many admirers of Bret Harte to be his + masterpiece of verse. The poem is so held for the evident sincerity and + depth of feeling it displays as well as for the unusual quality of its + poetic expression. +</p> +<p> + Bret Hart has been generally accepted as the one American writer who + possessed above all others the faculty of what may be called heart + appeal, the power to give to his work that quality of human interest + which enables the writer and his writings to live in the memory of the + reading public for all time. By reason of that gift of his Bret Harte + has been popularly compared with his great contemporary beyond the + seas, greatest of all sentimentalists among writers of fiction, + Charles Dickens. +</p> +<p> + Just how far the younger author selected the elder for his ideal, built + upon him, so to speak, & held his example constantly before his mental + vision, may be always a matter of debate amongst students of literature. + There can be no question of the genuineness of the Californian writer's + admiration of him who made the whole world laugh or weep with him at + will. It is recorded Harte that at seven years of age he had read + "Dombey & Son," and so, as one of his biographers, Henry Childs Merwin, + observes, "began his acquaintance with that author who was to influence + him far more than any other." Merwin further declares that "the reading + of Dickens stimulated his boyish imagination and quickened that sympathy + with the weak and suffering, with the downtrodden, with the waifs and + strays, with the outcasts of society, which is remarkable in both + writers. The spirit of Dickens breathes through the poems and stories of + Bret Harte just as the spirit of Bret Harte breathes through the poems + and stories of Kipling. Bret Harte had a very pretty satirical vein + which might easily have developed, have made him an author of satire + rather than of sentiment. Who can say that the influence of Dickens, + coming at the early, plastic period of his life, may not have turned + the scale?" +</p> +<p> + Another of his biographers, T. Edgar Pemberton, says his admiration for + Charles Dickens never waned, but on the contrary, increased as the years + rolled by. Harte himself, referring in later years to his childhood + days, to his father's library and the books to which he had access, + spoke of "the irresistible Dickens." Mr. Pemberton states, also, + that Bret Harte always felt that he owed a deep debt of gratitude to + Charles Dickens. +</p> +<p> + Small wonder, then, that, Bret Harte no matter how unconsciously, + should have adopted here and there something of the style and some of + the mannerisms of Dickens. This is directly traceable in his writings, + even to the extent of his resorting, here and there, to oddities of + expression which were peculiarly Dickensian. +</p> +<p> + The English writer, on his part, reciprocated in no small degree the + feeling of admiration which his works had aroused in the young American. + His biographer, John Forster, relates that Dickens called his attention + to two sketches by Bret Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The + Outcasts of Poker Flat," in which, writes the biographer, "he had found + such subtle strokes of character as he had not anywhere else in later + years discovered; the manner resembling himself but the matter fresh to + a degree that had surprised him; the painting in all respects masterly + and the wild rude thing painted a quite wonderful reality. I have rarely + known him more honestly moved." +</p> +<p> + Dickens gave evidence of this feeling of appreciation in a letter + addressed to Harte in California, commending his literary efforts, + inviting him to write a story for "All the Year Round" and bidding him + sojourn with him at Gad's Hill upon his first visit to England. This + letter was written shortly before Dickens' death and, unfortunately, + did not reach Bret Harte until sometime after that sad event. +</p> +<p> + When word of the passing of "The Master," as he reverently styled him, + reached Bret Harte he was in San Rafael. He immediately sent a dispatch + across the bay to San Francisco to hold back the forthcoming publication + of his "Overland Monthly" for twenty-four hours, and ere that time had + elapsed the poetic tribute to which the title was given of "Dickens in + Camp" had been composed and sent on its way to magazine headquarters + in the Western metropolis. That was in July, 1870. +</p> +<p> + Late in the '70s, while on his way to a consulship in Germany, Bret + Harte visited London for the first time. There he was taken in charge + by Joaquin Miller, the Poet of the Sierras, who in his reminiscences + relates: "He could not rest until he stood by the grave of Dickens. + At last one twilight I led him by the hand to where some plain letters + in a broad, flat stone just below the bust of Thackeray read 'Charles + Dickens.' Bret Harte is dead now and it will not hurt him in politics, + where they seem to want the hard and heartless for high places, it will + not hurt him in politics nor in anything anywhere to tell the plain + truth, how he tried to speak but choked up, how tears ran down and fell + on the stone as he bowed his bare head very low, how his hand trembled + as I led him away." +</p> +<p> + Many years later, in May, 1890, Bret Harte, in response to a request + for a facsimile of the original manuscript of "Dickens in Camp" replied + in part: +</p> +<p> + "I hurriedly sent the first and only draft of the verses to the office + at San Francisco, and I suppose after passing the printer's and + proof-reader's hands it lapsed into the usual oblivion of all editorial + 'copy'. +</p> +<p> + "I remember that it was very hastily but very honestly written, and it + is fair to add that it was not until later that I knew for the first + time that those gentle and wonderful eyes, which I was thinking of as + being closed forever, had ever rested kindly upon a line of mine." +</p> +<p> + The poem itself breathes reverence for "The Master" throughout. To + residents of California, who revel in the outdoor life of her mountains + & valleys, the poem has a particular attraction for its camp-fire spirit + which to us seems part and parcel of that outdoor life. It is a far + cry, perhaps, from the camp-fires of 1849 to the camp-fires of 1922, + but surely the camp-fire spirit is the same with us in our Western + wonderland today as it was with those rough old miners who sat around + the logs under the pines after a day of arduous and oft disappointing + toil. Surely the visions we see, the lessons we read in the camp-fire + glow, are much the same as they were then. Surely we build the same + castles in the air, draw the same inspirations from it. Biographer + Forster pays the poem this tribute: +</p> +<p> + "It embodies the same kind of incident which had so affected the master + himself in the papers to which I have referred; it shows the gentler + influences which, in even those California wilds, can restore outlawed + 'roaring campers' to silence and humanity; and there is hardly any + form of posthumous tribute which I can imagine likely to have better + satisfied his desire of fame than one which should thus connect with the + special favorite among all his heroines the restraints and authority + exerted by his genius over the rudest and least civilized of competitors + in that far, fierce race for wealth." +</p> +<p> + In the twining of English holly and Western pine upon the great English + novelist's grave the poet expresses a happy thought. He calls East and + West together in common appreciation of one whose influence was not + merely local but worldwide. He invites the old world and the new to + kneel together at the altar of sentiment, an appeal to the emotions + which never fails to touch a responsive chord in the heart of humanity. +</p> +<p style="text-align: right;"> + Frederick S. Myrtle +</p> +<p style="text-indent: 0em;"> +<i> San Francisco, California<br> + April, 1922</i> +</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<div style="height: 4em;"></div> + +<a name="image-0003"><!--IMG--></a> +<center> +<img src="images/head1.png" width="499" height="213" +alt="Decorative Header"> +</center> + +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + <i>DICKENS in CAMP</i> +</h2> +<hr> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p>Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting,</p> +<p class="i2"> The river sang below;</p> +<p>The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting</p> +<p class="i2"> Their minarets of snow.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The roaring camp-fire, with rude humor, painted</p> +<p class="i2"> The ruddy tints of health</p> +<p>On haggard face and form that drooped and fainted</p> +<p class="i2"> In the fierce race for wealth;</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Till one arose, and from his pack's scant treasure</p> +<p class="i2"> A hoarded volume drew,</p> +<p>And cards were dropped from hands of listless leisure</p> +<p class="i2"> To hear the tale anew;</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And then, while round them shadows gathered faster,</p> +<p class="i2"> And as the firelight fell,</p> +<p>He read aloud the book wherein the Master</p> +<p class="i2"> Had writ of "Little Nell."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Perhaps 'twas boyish fancy,—for the reader</p> +<p class="i2"> Was youngest of them all,—</p> +<p>But, as he read, from clustering pine and cedar</p> +<p class="i2"> A silence seemed to fall;</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>The fir-trees, gathering closer in the shadows,</p> +<p class="i2"> Listened in every spray,</p> +<p>While the whole camp, with "Nell" on English meadows,</p> +<p class="i2"> Wandered and lost their way.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And so in mountain solitudes—o'ertaken</p> +<p class="i2"> As by some spell divine—</p> +<p>Their cares dropped from them like the needles shaken</p> +<p class="i2"> From out the gusty pine.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Lost is that camp, and wasted all its fire:</p> +<p class="i2"> And he who wrought that spell?—</p> +<p>Ah, towering pine and stately Kentish spire,</p> +<p class="i2"> Ye have one tale to tell!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Lost is that camp! but let its fragrant story</p> +<p class="i2"> Blend with the breath that thrills</p> +<p>With hop-vines' incense all the pensive glory</p> +<p class="i2"> That fills the Kentish hills.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And on that grave where English oak and holly</p> +<p class="i2"> And laurel wreaths intwine,</p> +<p>Deem it not all a too presumptuous folly,—</p> +<p class="i2"> This spray of Western pine!</p> +</div></div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div style="height: 3em;"></div> + +<pre> + THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY COPIES OF THIS BOOK + PRINTED BY EDWIN GRABHORN FOR JOHN HOWELL. + TITLE PAGE AND DECORATIONS BY JOSEPH SINEL. + THIS IS COPY NO. [Handwritten: 37] +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"></div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12337 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/12337-h/images/head1.png b/12337-h/images/head1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..758acde --- /dev/null +++ b/12337-h/images/head1.png diff --git a/12337-h/images/inset.png b/12337-h/images/inset.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..65aa8b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/12337-h/images/inset.png |
