A native of New York, Bret Harte moved to California in 1854. Wandering about for a while, he finally settled in San Francisco, where he worked as a clerk and secretary in government offices. His short story M'liss, published in 1860, was accepted well. He continued writing, moving more into fiction about the American West. By the beginning of the 1870's, he had centered his writings on California. Such was the focus of his works for the next 30 years. Harte obtained a job in 1878 with the U.S. government in Germany. From 1880 -1885, he was U.S. consul at Glasgow.