William Dean Howells : a writer's life / Susan Goodman and Carl Dawson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goodman, Susan, 1951-

Contributor:

Dawson, Carl.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920.

Howells, William Dean.

Novelists, American--19th century--Biography.

Novelists, American.

Critics--United States--Biography.

Critics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (580 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Possibly the most influential figure in the history of American letters, William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was, among other things, a leading novelist in the realist tradition, a formative influence on many of America's finest writers, and an outspoken opponent of social injustice. This biography, the first comprehensive work on Howells in fifty years, enters the consciousness of the man and his times, revealing a complicated and painfully honest figure who came of age in an era of political corruption, industrial greed, and American imperialism. Written with verve and originality in a highly absorbing style, it brings alive for a new generation a literary and cultural pioneer who played a key role in creating the American artistic ethos. William Dean Howells traces the writer's life from his boyhood in Ohio before the Civil War, to his consularship in Italy under President Lincoln, to his rise as editor of Atlantic Monthly. It looks at his writing, which included novels, poems, plays, children's books, and criticism. Howells had many powerful friendships among the literati of his day; and here we find an especially rich examination of the relationship between Howells and Mark Twain. Howells was, as Twain called him, "the boss" of literary critics-his support almost single-handedly made the careers of many writers, including African Americans like Paul Dunbar and women like Sarah Orne Jewett. Showcasing many noteworthy personalities-Henry James, Edmund Gosse, H. G. Wells, Stephen Crane, Emily Dickinson, and many others-William Dean Howells portrays a man who stood at the center of American literature through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Contents:

Chronology of Howells' life and work

Parallel lives

Warring ambitions, 1851/1859

Years of decision, 1859/1861

Consul at Venice, 1861/1865

Atlantic years, 1 : 1865/1867

Atlantic years, 2 : 1867/1871

His Mark Twain, from 1869

Fictional lives, 1871/1878

From Venice as far as Belmont, 1878/1882

In England and Italy, 1882/1883

The man of business, 1883/1886

Heartache and horror, 1886/1890

Words and deeds, 1890/1894

Peripatetic, 1895/1899

Kittery Point, 1900/1905

Greater losses, 1906/1910

Reconsiderations, 1911/1917

Eighty years and after, 1918/1920.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

ISBN:

9786612357206

9780520930247

052093024X

9781282357204

1282357204

9781598755497

1598755498

OCLC:

475938436