American-British editor, writer and journalist, a great western story-teller about life in the early California mining camps. With little education, he drifted into journalism in 1854, becoming the first editor of “Overland Monthly,” 1868. His works fill 20 volumes.
In 1898, his wife Anna, whom he’d not seen for 30 years, arrived in England, disturbing his self-imposed exile. Involved in a relationship with Marguerite Van de Velde, a wealthy Belgian widow, Harte rejected Anna and she went on to visit her daughter in Paris.
Harte’s health was declining rapidly. He was crippled by neuralgia and his chronic painful throat was aggravated by his cigarettes. In January 1902, gaunt and in constant pain, he sought the sea air at Southsea, but it did no appreciable good. He returned to London in March for a throat operation that revealed deep, inoperable cancer. He spent several weeks in his rooms, then went with his lover to her home in Surrey. There, he rallied briefly and worked on what he said would be the best story he had ever done. After completing only two paragraphs, he collapsed with a throat hemorrhage, and died in the late afternoon of 5/05/1902 with Mrs. Van de Velde by his side. His wife and his lover met for the first time at his graveside, where his tombstone is inscribed to Mrs. Van de Velde, “In faithful remembrance.”