This book is titled "Echoes of the Foot-Hills" by Brett Harte, published in Boston by James R. Osgood in 1875, and it is a first edition in the first state. The book is 3/4 bound, with five raised bands, six gilt-ruled compartments with red and black labels and gilt lettering and gilt decorations on the spine, marbled covers and endpapers, a list of Bret Harte's writings on the page opposite the title page, then the tilte page with the Osgood colophon on it, the copyright page is dated 1874, followed by two pages of Contents and 146 pages of text, and all the edges are marbled. It also has "interferred" on the first line of page 58, which is the point of issue required to be a first state copy of the book. In the second state, it is corrected to 'interfered". See BAL 7278. Bret Harte (1836 - 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a career spanning more than four decades, he also wrote plays, book reviews, editorials and magazine sketches, but he is best remembered for his Gold Rush tales. Born in Albany, New York, he was an avid reader as a boy and published his first work when he was just eleven, a satirical poem called "Autumn Musings", and his formal schooling ended when he was thirteen. He moved to California in 1853, and after an unsuccessful attempt to make a living in the gold camps, he signed on as a messenger with Wells Fargo & Co. Express. He guarded treasure boxes on stagecoaches for a few months, then gave it up to become the schoolmaster at a school near the town of Sonora, in the Sierra foothills. He created his character Yuba Bill from his memory of an old stagecoach driver. His father was one of the founders of the New York Stock Exchange, and Bret himself was also a secretary of the San Francisco Mint; like father, like son. The Atlantic Monthly published Harte's first short story in October 1863, and he teamed up with Charles Henry Webb a year later to start a new literary journal called The Californian. In 1868, Harte became editor of The Overland Monthly, another new literary magazine, published by Roman Anton with the intention of highlighting local writings. The Overland Monthly was more in tune with the pioneering spirit of excitement in California, and Harte's short story "The Luck of Roaring Camp" appeared in the magazine's second issue, propelling him to fame nationwide and across the pond (in Europe). Harte was determined to pursue his literary career and traveled back east with his family in 1871 to New York and eventually to Boston, where he contracted with the publisher of The Atlantic Monthly for an annual salary of $10,000, "an unprecedented sum at the time". His popularity waned, however, and by the end of 1872, he lost his job and was becoming desperate. He spent the next few years struggling to make ends meet, so he tried to publish new work or republish old ones, and he delivered lectures about the gold rush. The book is 8vo. and measures 7 1/8 x 4 3/4 in. wide, with a tight binding and clean pages and text. The spine is a bit faded, with light rubbing along the edges of the spine, light wear at the crown, and rubbing on the small leather pieces in the corners and at the tips. A good copy of a work by one of America's great storytellers. #29 #7031