The Luck of Roaring Camp
Encyclopedia
"The Luck of Roaring Camp" is a short story
by American author Bret Harte
. It was first published in the August 1868 issue of the Overland Monthly
and helped push Harte to international prominence.
The story is about the birth of a baby boy in a 19th century gold prospecting
camp. The boy's mother, Cherokee Sal, dies in childbirth, so the men of Roaring Camp must raise it themselves. Believing the child to be a good luck charm, the miners christen the boy Thomas Luck. Afterwards, they decide to refine their behavior and refrain from gambling and fighting. At the end of the story, however, Thomas Luck and a villager, Kentuck, perish in a flash flood
that strikes the camp. The flood theme may have come from the Great Flood of California, witnessed by Harte in 1862, which resulted from weeks of torrential rains throughout the entire state combined with warming temperatures in mid January that melted snowpack. In addition to the melt-waters, six to ten feet of rain fell in some mining area near Grass Valley, according to the Sacramento Union newspapers of the day.
. The camp is suffering from an elongated string of bad luck. With only one female member of the camp, it seems as though the camp has no future. However, the tide turns when a small boy is born. The boy is named “Thomas Luck” and is the first newborn the camp has seen in ages. With the birth of the “Luck” (the camp members refer to the newborn child as the Luck for short) comes a new sense of hope; a change that sheds a positive light on the camp as a whole. Members develop a positive outlook on the future. Foliage begins to finally grow. Talk of constructing a hotel arises in order to attract outsiders. Unfortunately, the progressing sense of hope is suddenly wiped out by the sudden death of Thomas Luck. A flood washes through the camp taking Thomas Luck's life. The ending is ironic because it was water that brought gold to the gulches of the mountains in the first place and which gave the miners hope, yet it was water that also extinguished the hope of Roaring Camp.
Kentuck:a rugged prospector who tries to save Thomas Luck's life in the flood
Cherokee Sal: mother of Thomas Luck; only woman on camp
Stumpy:Guardian of Thomas Luck
Four of the Apocalypse
is based in part on Harte's story.
The Thomas Edison Motion Picture Company, in the Bronx, New York, turned the story into a silent film by the same name in 1909. The film was directed by character actor Frank McGlynn, Sr. and featured his son Thomas as Tommy Luck.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by American author Bret Harte
Bret Harte
Francis Bret Harte was an American author and poet, best remembered for his accounts of pioneering life in California.- Life and career :...
. It was first published in the August 1868 issue of the Overland Monthly
Overland Monthly
Overland Monthly was a monthly magazine based in California, United States, and published in the 19th and 20th century.The magazine's first issue was in July 1868, and continued until the late 1875. The original publishers, in 1880, started The Californian, which became The Californian and Overland...
and helped push Harte to international prominence.
The story is about the birth of a baby boy in a 19th century gold prospecting
Gold prospecting
Gold prospecting is the act of searching for new gold deposits. Methods used vary with the type of deposit sought and the resources of the prospector...
camp. The boy's mother, Cherokee Sal, dies in childbirth, so the men of Roaring Camp must raise it themselves. Believing the child to be a good luck charm, the miners christen the boy Thomas Luck. Afterwards, they decide to refine their behavior and refrain from gambling and fighting. At the end of the story, however, Thomas Luck and a villager, Kentuck, perish in a flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
that strikes the camp. The flood theme may have come from the Great Flood of California, witnessed by Harte in 1862, which resulted from weeks of torrential rains throughout the entire state combined with warming temperatures in mid January that melted snowpack. In addition to the melt-waters, six to ten feet of rain fell in some mining area near Grass Valley, according to the Sacramento Union newspapers of the day.
Plot summary
Bret Harte’s The Luck of Roaring Camp is a short story of a small struggling mining town located in the foothills of the California mountains at the time of the gold rushGold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
. The camp is suffering from an elongated string of bad luck. With only one female member of the camp, it seems as though the camp has no future. However, the tide turns when a small boy is born. The boy is named “Thomas Luck” and is the first newborn the camp has seen in ages. With the birth of the “Luck” (the camp members refer to the newborn child as the Luck for short) comes a new sense of hope; a change that sheds a positive light on the camp as a whole. Members develop a positive outlook on the future. Foliage begins to finally grow. Talk of constructing a hotel arises in order to attract outsiders. Unfortunately, the progressing sense of hope is suddenly wiped out by the sudden death of Thomas Luck. A flood washes through the camp taking Thomas Luck's life. The ending is ironic because it was water that brought gold to the gulches of the mountains in the first place and which gave the miners hope, yet it was water that also extinguished the hope of Roaring Camp.
Important Quotes
- “The strongest man has but three fingers on his right hand; the best shot had but one eye”
- “Red Dog has twice been under water, and Roaring Camp had been forewarned”.
- “Higher up the gulch they found the body of its unlucky owner; but the pride, the hope, the joy, The Luck, of Roaring Camp had disappeared”.
- “Gamblers and adventures are generally superstitious, and Oakhurst one day declared that the baby had brought ‘the Luck’ to Roaring Camp”.
Characters
Thomas Luck: newborn child thought to be the savior of the campKentuck:a rugged prospector who tries to save Thomas Luck's life in the flood
Cherokee Sal: mother of Thomas Luck; only woman on camp
Stumpy:Guardian of Thomas Luck
Adaptations
The spaghetti westernSpaghetti Western
Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
Four of the Apocalypse
Four of the Apocalypse
Four of the Apocalypse is a 1975 Spaghetti Western film directed by Lucio Fulci and starring Fabio Testi. It is based on two stories by western writer Bret Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"....
is based in part on Harte's story.
The Thomas Edison Motion Picture Company, in the Bronx, New York, turned the story into a silent film by the same name in 1909. The film was directed by character actor Frank McGlynn, Sr. and featured his son Thomas as Tommy Luck.
External links
- The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
. - Bret Harte at the Literary Encyclopedia
- Teacher's notes from Penguin BooksPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
- Narrated Storyline at www.manythings.org