3550

Brett Harte 1870 Poem 1870 [171048]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Paper Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Brett Harte 1870 Poem  1870  [171048]
SOLD
120.00USDto C*****r+ buyer's premium (30.00)
This item SOLD at 2023 Dec 09 @ 17:01UTC-8 : PST/AKDT

Shipping is billed separately. Pay your auction invoice early as purchases are packed in the order payments are received. Pick-up must be scheduled 24 hours in advance when you receive your shipping preference email after the auction. Invoices will go out immediately after the auction ends.

This is a series of pages from a publication of the Western News Company of a poem by Brett Harte in 1870. Harte referred to this piece as "The worst poem I've ever written."
"The Heathen Chinee", originally published as "Plain Language from Truthful James", is a narrative poem. The narrative of the poem focuses on a Chinese immigrant character named Ah Sin who is playing the card game euchre with two white men on August 3 of an unspecified year. "Truthful James", one of the men who narrates the poem, observes that the other white man, Bill Nye, is cheating with a stacked deck, and with cards up his sleeve. It was published for the first time in September 1870 in the Overland Monthly. California