Authors, many of whom surround us today, are those who enrich our imagination or bring to life all that is clear and different. In American history, a number of poets and authors have become popular. They changed people's outlook on everything and added a lot of different things to American literature. Throughout this period, a few great poets and authors helped create the local color school in American fiction. Bret Harte is a poet who contributed to this movement. Bret Harte, American author and poet, was born on August 25, 1836 in Albany, New York. Her father, Henry Harte, and mother, Elizabeth Ostrander, both worked as teachers. His full name was Francis Brett Hart, but he decided to use Bret, denouncing the last T. His father then legally changed his last name to Harte instead of Hart. He practically grew up in a family whose financial situation was then modest. Due to the family's financial background, his education lasted only a short time. When he was nine, his father died and his mother remarried, leading them to move to the Pacific Coast. Throughout his life, Bret Harte worked a lot and pursued different professions. He was a tutor, a shotgun rider on a stagecoach, a printer, a journalist, a columnist, a Northern California editor and more. It was in Northern California that Harte got his first experience in journalism, writing and editing. When the Gunthers Island massacre happened, he became very angry and used his power as a writer to express how he felt and his editorial rage. However, the reaction of the local population was opposite to what he felt and he was asked to leave the city. Harte felt the locals were unfair to... middle of paper ...... treats Piney like her own child and is moved by the couple's love. After ten days in the cabin, she died of starvation. She asked Oakhurst to give the rations she had saved to Piney. He felt that they were all already desperate, so he ordered Tom to go to Poker Flat and try to get help. After a few days, when help arrived at the cabin, the two women found huddled together, frozen to death, and near Oakhurst, he was found with a gun near him, a bullet in the heart and a suicide note reading: "Under this tree lies the body of John Oakhurst, who experienced a streak of bad luck on November 23, 1850, and delivered his checks on December 7, 1850." (Harte 458). This story shows that people can change their lives whenever they want and that anyone can develop feelings despite everything they have done before..