HOWELLS, WILLIAM DEAN

(18371920) Novelist, e ayist, and poet. 2B. in Martins Ferry, Ohio, March 1, 1837; d. in New York, April 11, 1920. The s. of a country printer and newspaper editor he had no regular education, but was brought up among books and in a literary atmosphere. From i840 to 1849 he lived at Hamilton, Ohio, which he has described in A Boys’ Town. After some experience writing for new sHapers he was appointed U. 8. consul to enice, Italy, 1861-1865. On his return to the United States he formed connections with the N. Y. Tribune, Times and The Nation, and edited the Atlantic Monthly, 1871-1881. He wrote The Editors Study for Harper’s Monthly, 1886-1891 and was editor of The Cosmopolitan for a short time, returning to Harpers to write The Easy Chair for the Monthly until his death. He was a founder and the president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In the first rank of American novelists he was also noted as poet and e ayist. Few authors in his cla have been more prolific. Among his principal works are Poems, 1873-1886, and 1895. Novels: Their Wedding Journey, 1871; A Chance Acquaintance, 1872; A Foregone Conclusion, 1875; Lady of the Aristook, 1878; A Modern Instance, 1882; A Womans Reason, 1883: The Rise of Silas Lapham, burn, 1889; The Kentons, 1902; New Leaf Mills, 1913; The Leatherwood God, 1919. Travels: Venetian Life, 1866; Italian Journeys, Tuscan Cities, Some English Towns, Spanish Travels also Years of My Youth and Years of My Middle Life, 1920 and one act plays The Mouse Trap, The Hlevator, etc.