"And who are you?' cried one, agape,
Shuddering in the gloaming light.
'I know not,' said the second Shape,
'I only died last night!'"
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, 1837-1920
[Illustration: WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS]
The foremost leader of realism in modern American fiction, the man who
influenced more young writers than any other novelist of the last quarter
of the nineteenth century, was William Dean Howells, who was born in
Martin's Ferry, Ohio, in 1837. He never went to college, but obtained
valuable training as a printer and editor in various newspaper offices in
Ohio. He was for many years editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_ and an
editorial contributor to the _New York Nation_ and _Harper's Magazine_. In
these capacities, as well as by his fiction, he reached a wide public.
Later he turned his attention mainly to the writing of novels. So many of
their scenes are laid in New England that he is often claimed as a New
England writer.
His strongest novels are _A Modern Instance_ (1882), _The Rise of Silas
Lapham_ (1885), _The Minister's Charge_ (1886), _Indian Summer_ (1886), and
_A Hazard of New Fortunes_ (1889). These belong to the middle period of his
career.
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