The Golden Era began in 1852 as a weekly founded by
Rollin M. Daggett and J. Macdonough Foard.[4] In 1860 it was sold to James Brooks and Joseph E. Lawrence. In the spring of 1860, they hired Bret Harte as editor and he focused on making it a more literary publication.[5] He had previously published his first poem in the Golden Era in 1857[6] and, in October of that same year, his first prose piece on "A Trip Up the Coast".[7] Twain later recalled that, as an editor, Harte struck "a new and fresh and spirited note" which "rose above that orchestra's mumbling confusion and was recognizable as music".[8]
In the 1860s, New Yorker
Charles Henry Webb became the highest paid contributor to the magazine.[9] In his regular column at the end of 1863, he announced that he and Harte "determined to start a paper" of their own.[10] The result was the Californian, begun in May 1864, with Webb as publisher and Harte as star contributor and occasional editor.[11] For the rest of the decade, The Golden Era and The Californian were significant rivals.[12]
Harr Wagner bought the weekly in 1882. In January 1886, Wagner changed to monthly publication, and hired
Joaquin Miller as editor. Wagner married poet Madge Morris who was already a contributor, and her contributions became more numerous. In 1887, Wagner moved the periodical to
San Diego, California—city officials enticed him with a $5,000 subsidy.[13]
The office for The Golden Era was located initially in the
Golden Era Building on 742 Montgomery Street from 1852 until 1854;[14][15] and later on Clay Street.[3]
^
abTarnoff, Ben. The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014: 40.
ISBN978-1-59420-473-9
^Tarnoff, Ben. The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014: 26–27.
ISBN978-1-59420-473-9
^Scarnhorst, Gary. Bret Harte: Opening the American Literary West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000: 6;
ISBN0-8061-3254-X
^Nissen, Axel. Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2000: 48–49.
ISBN1-57806-253-5
^Tarnoff, Ben. The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014: 28.
ISBN978-1-59420-473-9
^Nissen, Axel. Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2000: 76.
ISBN1-57806-253-5
^Tarnoff, Ben. The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014: 65.
ISBN978-1-59420-473-9
^Nissen, Axel. Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2000: 25.
ISBN1-57806-253-5
^Caron, James E. Mark Twain: Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008: 217.
ISBN978-0-8262-1802-5