William Dean Howells

William Dean Howells was born in 1837 in Ohio, the son of a printer and itinerant newspaper publisher. A typesetter from childhood, with almost no schooling, he taught himself German, Spanish and other languages. A campaign biography written for Lincoln earned him the consulate in Venice. Editor of the Atlantic Monthly from 1871 to 1881, he defended realism there and supported Mark Twain and Henry James, of whom he became a friend. In 1887 he publicly defended those convicted in the Haymarket affair, at the risk of his reputation. He died in New York in 1920.

In the catalogue 1

• NovelThe Rise of Silas LaphamWilliam Dean Howells · 1885LiteraturePublic domain