| William Dean Howells helped introduce European writers to American
readers, and challenged American writers to choose
American subjects
William Dean Howells was born in
Martinsville (now Martins Ferry), Ohio, on March 1, 1837.
As a youth he worked as a typesetter and printer's
apprentice, and educated himself through intensive
reading and the study of Spanish, French, Latin, and
German. In 1858, he became the city editor of the Ohio
State Journal, in which some of his first written
work was published.
In 1860, Howells did a lot of work for
the presidential campaign of Abraham Lincoln,
including the writing of Life of Lincoln (1860).
In appreciation, President Lincoln appointed him U.S.
Consul in Venice, Italy, where he served until 1865. His
second major work, Venetian Life (1866),
described his experiences while serving in Venice.
In 1866, Howells joined the staff of
the Atlantic Monthly, and served as its editor
from 1871 to 1881. During his tenure there, he helped
introduce European writers to American readers. He also
challenged American writers to choose American subjects
and to protray them honestly, and to create characters
who used native American speech. As a columnist for Harper's
New Monthly ("Editor's Study," 1886-1892,
and "Editor's Easy Chair," 1900-1920), Howells
campaigned for literary realism that examined life with
scientific detachment. He also helped introduce and
support a number of writers who themselves became well
known, including Stephen Crane, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain.
Many of Howells' novels deal with
various issues of his day in an increasingly realistic
manner. A Modern Instance (1882) concerns the
then daring subject of divorce. The Rise of Silas
Lapham (1885), generally considered his best work,
describes the rise of a businessman to social and civil
prominence in a society controlled by families who
inherited their positions of influence and power. A
Hazard of New Fortunes (1890) potrays the problems
of industrialization and the growth of labor unions as a
force in American life. An Imperative Duty
(1892) deals with racial issues, Annie Kilburn
(1888) about the problems of labor, and The Coast of
Bohemia (1893) about professions for women.
Howells' essays describing his literary
standards and ideals were collected in Criticism and
Fiction (1891) and My Literary Passions
(1895).
In 1908, Howell was elected the first
president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters,
which established the Howells Medal for Fiction in his
honor in 1915.
William Dean Howells died of pneumonia
on May 11, 1920, in New York City; he is buried in
Cambridge Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
His Principal Works
Poems of Two Friends (1860)
Life of Lincoln (1860)
Venetian Life (1866)
Italian Journeys (1867)
Suburban Sketches (1871)
Their Wedding Journey (1871)
A Foregone Conclusion (1875)
Private Theatricals (1875)
Sketch of the Life and Character of Rutherford B.
Hayes (1876)
A Day's Pleasure (1876--play)
The Parlor Car: A Farce (1876)
Out of the Question: A Comedy (1877)
A Counterfeit Presentment (1877--play)
The Lady of the Aroostook (1879)
The Undiscovered Country (1880)
A Fearful Responsibility, and Other Stories
(1881)
Dr. Breen's Practice: A Novel (1881)
A Modern Instance: A Novel (1882)
A Woman's Reason (1883)
The Sleeping Car: A Farce (1883)
Three Villages (1884--essays)
The Register: Farce (1884)
A Little Girl among the Old Masters (1884)
The Rise of Silas Lapham
(1885)
A Likely Story (1885--play)
The Elevator: Farce (1885)
Tuscan Cities (1886)
The Garroters (1886)
A Chance Acquaintance (1886)
The Minister's Charge (1886)
Indian Summer
(1886)
April Hopes (1887)
Their Wedding Journey: with an Additional Chapter
(1888)
A Sea-change: or, Love's Stowaway, a Lyricated Farce
in Two Acts and an Epilogue (1888)
Annie Kilburn (1889)
The Mouse-Trap and Other Farces (1889)
The Sleeping-Car and Other Farces (1889)
A Boy's Town (1890)
A Hazard of New Fortunes
(1890)
The Shadow of a Dream and
An Imperative Duty
(1890)
The Landlord at Lion's Head (1897)
Criticism and Fiction (1891)
An Imperative Duty (1892)
The Albany Depot: A Farce in One Act (1892)
The Quality of Mercy (1892)
A Letter of Introduction: Farce (1892)
A Little Swiss Sojourn (1892)
Christmas Every Day and Other Stories Told for
Children (1892)
The World of Chance: A Novel (1893)
My Year in a Log Cabin (1893)
The Coast of Bohemia: A Novel (1893)
Evening Dress: Farce (1893)
The Niagara Book (1893)
A Traveler from Altruria (1894)
Five O'Clock Tea (1894)
Stops of Various Quills (1895--poetry)
My Literary Passions (1895)
Recollections of Life in Ohio, from 1813-1840
(1895)
The Day of Their Wedding (1896)
Impressions and Experiences (1896--essays)
A Parting and a Meeting: Story (1896)
Idyls in Drab (1896)
The Country Printer, an Essay (1896)
Stories of Ohio (1897)
An Open-Eyed Conspiracy, an Idyl of Saratoga
(1897)
A Previous Engagement: Comedy (1897)
The Story of a Play: A Novel (1898)
Their Silver Wedding Journey (1899)
Ragged Lady, a Novel (1899)
Literary Friends and Acquaintance (1900--essays)
Bride Roses: A Scene (1900)
An Indian Giver: A Comedy (1900)
Room Forty-five: A Farce (1900)
The Smoking Car: A Farce (1900)
Heroines of Fiction (1901)
A Pair of Patient Lovers (1901)
The Kentons: A Novel (1902)
The Flight of Pony Baker: A Boy's Town Story
(1902)
Literature and Life: Studies (1902)
Letters Home (1903)
Questionable Shapes (1903)
The Son of Royal Langbrith (1904)
Miss Bellard's Inspiration (1905)
London Films (1905)
Certain Delightful English Towns, With Glimpses of
the Pleasant Country Between (1906)
Through the Eye of the Needle, a Romance (1907)
Between the Dark and the Daylight: Romances (1907)
Fennel and Rue: A Novel (1908)
The Whole Family (1908)
Roman Holidays, and Others (1908)
Seven English Cities (1909)
The Mother and the Father: Dramatic Passages
(1909)
Boy Life (1909)
My Mark Twain (1910)
In After Days: Thoughts on the Future Life
(1910)
Imaginary Interviews (1910)
The Writings of William Dean Howells (1911)
Parting Friends: A Farce (1911)
New Leaf Mills: A Chronicle (1913)
Family Spanish Travels (1913)
The Seen and Unseen at Stratford-on-Avon: A Fantasy
(1914)
The Leatherwood God (1916)
Years of My Youth (1916--autobiography)
The Daughter of the Storage and Other Things in Prose
and Verse (1916--poetry)
Buying a Horse (1916)
Eighty Years and After (1919)
The Vacation of the Kelwyns, an Idyl of the Middle
Eighteen-Seventies (1920)
PRINT SOURCE
World Book Encyclopedia
Chicago: World Book-Childcraft International, Inc., 1979
WEB SOURCE
The William Dean Howells Society howellssociety.wordpress.com/
SEE ALSO
Abraham Lincoln
Mark Twain
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