Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Short Stories, with eBook

Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, in 1836 and was raised in New York City. He had no formal education, but he inherited a love for books. In 1857, Harte moved to California and eventually wrote for the San Franciscan Golden Era paper. There he published his first condensed novels, which were brilliant parodies of the works of well-known authors, such as Dickens and Cooper. Later, he became clerk in the U.S. branch mint. This job gave Harte time to also work for the Overland Monthly, where he published his world-famous "Luck of the Roaring Camp" and commissioned Mark Twain to write weekly articles. In 1871, Harte was hired by the Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 to write twelve stories a year, which was the highest figure paid to an American writer at the time. He moved to New England after resigning a professorship at the University of California. There he was welcomed as an equal by such writers as Longfellow and Holmes, and he received continued praise for his works. However, laden with personal and family difficulties, his work suffered. In 1878, after an unsuccessful attempt on the lecture circuit, Harte accepted consulships in Germany and, later, Scotland. In 1885, he retired to London, where he died in 1902.

John Bolen brings his extensive theater, film, and television experience to audiobooks. Recent television appearances include CIA: Masters of Deception on the Discovery Channel and Courage on the Fox Family Channel. His recent film work includes The Land, The Inn Outside the World, Dream Parlor, and the American Film Institute's Women Directors Workshop short This Is Bill. John has performed at many theaters in the Los Angeles area. He portrayed Sir David Metcalfe in Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Jim in Later Life. He was featured as Dr. Montague in The Haunting of Hill House, Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. Meeker in Inherit the Wind, Henri and the shore patrolman in South Pacific, and Lord Montague in Romeo and Juliet. He starred as Palmer Forrester in Murder Among Friends and Dr. Gerald Lyman in Bus Stop. John has also performed in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Tribunal, A Dickens of a Christmas, Once Upon a Mattress, Fiddler on the Roof, and Finian's Rainbow. He performs in an ongoing school touring production of Billy's Closet. He is also a playwright and a member of the New Voices Playwrights Theatre. John and his wife, Lynne, live in Irvine, California.