Bret Harte is a fondly remembered western writer who spent only eighteen of his sixty-six years in the American west -- in fact, he went on, in 1878, to get work as an American consul in Germany, and as far as we can tell, never came back to the United States. He died in 1902, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church, in Frimley, Surrey, England.

Even so, the American west was in his heart, and that was what he wrote about -- here, in Colonel Starbottle's Client, including stories like "Colonel Starbottle's Client," "The Postmistress of Laurel Run," "A Night at 'Hays, '" "Johnson's 'Old Woman, '" "The New Assistant at Pine Clearing School," "In a Pioneer Restaurant," "A Treasure of the Galleon," "Out of a Pioneer's Trunk," and "The Ghosts of Stukeley Castle." Harte was a wonderful writer; this is a volume you won't want to miss.