Among Harte's first literary efforts, a poem was published in "The Golden Era" in 1857, and, in October of that same year, his first prose piece on "A Trip Up the Coast". He was hired as editor of "The Golden Era" in the spring of 1860, which he attempted to make into a more literary publication. Mark 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". Among his writings were parodies and satires of other writers, including "The Stolen Cigar-Case" featuring ace detective "Hemlock Jones", which Ellery Queen praised as "probably the best parody of Sherlock Holmes ever written".