The Bohemians by Ben Tarnoff

This book was one I looked forward to reading for the insight I would get into writing as it developed in the west, but it soon became much more - in fact it set a high standard for the new year and allowed me new insights in to the complex life and personality of Mark Twain as his career makes the critical turn in the Gold Camps. 

The circumstances of this time period have never been laid out so thoroughly and Twain's very complex personality really plays out in this book, but even more so because of the contrast with his contemporaries who form the Bohemians. Ina Coolith, Charles Warren Stoddard, and Bret Harte complete the foursome that flips literature from East to West and back again. Each of these made a major contribution during their lifetimes, but only Twain ascended to the Master's level. 

We see this group like so many writers groups - I just finished watching the hilarious movie Authors Anonymous and in this small group of four we find the basis for many stereotypes. Ina Coolbrith is, perhaps, the saddest. She obtains the status of state poet laureate in old age, but it is the life she lives, tied to the bonds of her family. She cares for the old, raises children that are not hers, watches Stoddard sail to the islands and Twain and Harte move east, but she is bound to the place and is sad because of it.

Stoddard is another who becomes a role player in the group. He is a man lost in his own world and unable to identify with the world around him. His sexuality finally finds expression in the warm and idyllic islands of the Pacific and he is able to create one great work of literature, but his spiral cannot continue upward and he loses his position in literature as he struggles to be a secretary for Twain and other roles he is not suited for.

Harte is the man of immense talent and an even larger ego. "A DANDY" in his fancy clothes, a skeptic, a critic, and bitter in his philosophy and writing. Luck of Roaring Camp is his classic. It pulls him from the West to the East and by leaving California which had provided his muse he has only his inflated sense of self left. He will insult and injure all who reach out to him and his ego will not allow himself to be rescued.  This will include his most popular work the Heathen Chinee that originally was a plea to understand the racism that impacted the Chinese and ultimately became an instrument to increase the racism.  He sees himself as a martyr, but in fact he is a self destructing narcissist and his tragedy lacks sympathy because he has cut off all who would mourn.

But the group is driven by Twain, who, like Harte, begins by allowing cruelty and self righteousness to affect his early writing. The result is a need to periodically run from the storms he creates. The Bohemians help to ground him and they would all have remained friends if Harte had not developed such a toxic and acerbic presence that will finally flip friendship for enmity. In the end, it is Harte's criticism of Twain's home (he lived there free) and then of Livy (Twain's wife) that makes the separation complete.

We can follow Twain who is driven by jealousy of Harte's success and then see him rise to the ultimate level of literary reputation. The entwined lives are fascinating