William Dean Howells

Howells about 1870

William Dean Howells (March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American author and literary critic. His works include the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of Silas Lapham. He married Elinor Mead and had three children.

Works

• Venetian Life (1866)
• Italian Journeys (1867)
• Suburban Sketches (1871)
• Their Wedding Journey (1872)
• A Counterfeit Presentment (1877)
• The Lady of The Aroostook (1879)

The following were written during his residence in England and in Italy, as was The Rise of Silas Lapham in 1885.

• The Undiscovered Country (1880)
• A Fearful Responsibility (1881)
• Dr. Breen's Practice (1881)
• The Sleeping Car (1882)
• A Modern Instance (1882)
• A Woman's Reason (1883)
• Three Villages (1884)
• Tuscan Cities (1885)
• The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)

He returned to the United States in 1886. He wrote various types of works, including fiction, poetry, and farces, of which The Sleeping Car, The Mouse-Trap, The Elevator; Christmas Every Day; and Out of the Question are characteristic.

• Indian Summer (1886)
• The Minister's Charge (1886)
• Annie Kilburn (1887/88)
• Modern Italian Poets (1887)
• April Hopes (1888)
• Mark Twain's Library of Humor (1888, in conjunction with Mark Twain)
• A Hazard of New Fortunes (1889)
• The Shadow of a Dream (1890)
• Criticism and Fiction (1891)
• Christmas Every Day (1892)
• The Quality of Mercy (1892)
• An Imperative Duty (1892)
• The Coast of Bohemia (1893)
• My Year In a Log Cabin (1893)
• A Traveler from Altruria (1894)
• Stops of Various Quills (1895)
• The Story of a Play (1898)
• Ragged Lady (1899)
• Their Silver Wedding Anniversary (1899)
• The Flight of Pony Baker (1902)
• The Kentons (1902)
• Questionable Shapes (1903)
• Son of Royal Langbrith (1904)
• Editha (1905)
• London Films (1905)
• Certain Delightful English Towns (1906)
• Between the Dark and the Daylight (1907)
• Through the Eye of the Needle (1907)
• Heroines of Fiction (1908)
• The Landlord At Lion's Head (1908)
• My Mark Twain: Reminiscences (1910)
• New Leaf Mills (1913)
• Seen and Unseen at Stratford-upon-Avon: A Fantasy (1914)
• The Leatherwood God (1916)
• Years of My Youth (autobiography) (1916)

References

• Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. pp. 154.
• Fryckstedt, Olov W. 1958. In Quest of America: A Study of Howells’ Early Development as a Novelist. Upsala, Sweden: Thesis.
• Goodman, Susan and Carl Dawson. William Dean Howells: A Writer's Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. ISBN 0-520-23896-6
• Lynn, Kenneth S. William Dean Howells: An American Life. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1970. ISBN 0-15-142177-3
• Olsen, Rodney. Dancing in Chains: The Youth of William Dean Howells. New York: New York University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8147-6172-0

Further reading

• Witschi, N.S. (2002). Traces of Gold: California's Natural Resources and the Claim to Realism in Western American Literature. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-1117-3.

Other websites

• Works by William Dean Howells at Project Gutenberg
• Essays by William Dean Howells at Quotidiana.org
• William Dean Howells Society includes a biographical sketch of Howells, links to his works (including the "Editor's Study" columns), questions and replies, bibliographies, and pictures.
• Realism in American Literature at the Literary Movements site