HENRY JAMES
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
THOMAS NELSON PAGE
JAMES LANE ALLEN
WINSTON CHURCHILL
OWEN WISTER
[Illustration]
_By HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE_
This group of distinguished novelists may be divided into four
smaller groups, not only in time, but in selection and treatment of
subjects. Mr. James and Mr. Howells are now the senior members of
the literary fraternity in this country, and have not only American
but European reputations. Only three novelists before them attained
this distinction. The earliest of these, Cooper, is still read in
many parts of the world, and in little German villages boys call
themselves “Cooper Indians,” and play at oldtime savage warfare.
The author of the “Leatherstocking Tales” wrote the first original
American novel, and Hawthorne wrote the first American romance. The
first described the manners and customs of a people whom he knew
at first hand, but whom Europe knew only by hearsay; the second
analyzed the motives and described the workings of the Puritan
spirit, and showed how the consciousness of sin worked itself out
in the Puritan character. The theme was new, and the manner of
treating it was both effective and beautiful--and Hawthorne remains
the most artistic writer this country has produced.
[Illustration: HARRIET BEECHER STOWE]
The next novelist to whom Europe paid attention was Mrs. Stowe.
“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was like a great torch held up over a fiercely
disputed field; it showed men and women living under all conditions
of slavery, paternal and humane on one hand, and commercial and
cruel on the other. It made a drama of a political issue, and was
read with bated breath by a million people. It interested Europe
because it was a powerful story dealing with a situation that had
attracted the attention of the whole Western world; it was at once
translated into several languages, and could be found from London
to Constantinople.
[Illustration: HOME OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. HARTFORD, CONN.]