Luck of Roaring Camp, The

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | 628 words | Copyright

Luck of Roaring Camp, The, story by Bret Harte, published in the Overland Monthly (1868) and reprinted in The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (1870). It is often called the first example of local‐color fiction.

A child is born to Cherokee Sal, a prostitute in the California gold‐mining settlement of Roaring Camp. The mother dies, and the child, christened Thomas Luck, is adopted by the hardened miners, whose spirit is changed to a beautiful though awkward sympathy. The following year, when the river rises, Roaring Camp is engulfed, and Kentuck, one of the miners, is drowned with The Luck in his arms.

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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Luck of Roaring Camp, The." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Luck of Roaring Camp, The." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-LuckofRoaringCampThe.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Luck of Roaring Camp, The." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-LuckofRoaringCampThe.html

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