Book excerpt: 1894. Illustrated. Bret Harte's witty, sometimes heart-rending tales of frontier California, earned him acclaim during the 1860s as the new prophet of American letters. His books, The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat and M'liss, helped establish the foundations of western American fiction. Contents: The Bell-Ringer of Angel's; Johnnyboy; Young Robin Gray; The Sheriff of Siskyou; A Rose of Glenbogie; The Mystery of the Hacienda; Chu Chu; and My First Book. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.