American humourist, born at Albany, New York; went to California at 15; tried various occupations, mining, school-mastering, printing, and literary sketching, when he got on the staff of a newspaper, and became eventually first editor of the Overland Monthly, in the columns of which he established his reputation as a humourist by the publication of the "Heathen Chinee" and other humorous productions, such as "The Luck of Roaring Camp"; he wields a prolific pen, and all he writes is of his own original coinage; born 1839.