Bret Harte manuscript signed poem "Plain Language from Truthful James"

Containers:

Box BW 27, Folder 1

Scope and content:

Parody on Algernon Charles Swinburne's poem "Atalanta in Calydon (1865). It was first published in the September, 1870 issue of the Overland Monthly.

The connecton to Swinburne was quickly lost as the poem became known as "The Heathen Chinee" and was reprinted widely throughout the United States. The sixth stanza concerns the discovery that the heathen Chinee and Nye are both cheating at a card game. Harte in his fair copy of a single stanza, has changed one revealing word: "Chinee" has been changed to "B. J."

Language:

English

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