Bookm. 47 ('18): 149 (portrait); 48 ('18): 478.
Dial, 64 ('18): 297; 65 ('18): 419.
See also _Book Review Digest_, 1918-21.
+William Dean Howells+--novelist, dramatist, critic, poet.
Born at Martins Ferry, Ohio, 1837. Of Welsh, English, Pennsylvania Dutch,
and Irish ancestry. His father was a country editor, and Mr. Howells,
living as he did under pioneer conditions, had very little formal
education, but educated himself in working on newspapers as printer,
correspondent, and editor. He read continually in boyhood, and taught
himself to read six languages. As the result of a campaign life of
Lincoln, he was appointed U.S. consul at Venice and lived there, 1861-5.
After a year on the staff of the _Nation_, he became assistant editor of
the _Atlantic Monthly_, 1866-72, and editor, 1872-81. Later, he became an
editorial writer for _Harper's Magazine_, 1886-91, and finally writer of
the "Editor's Easy Chair," for the same magazine.
Although Mr. Howells did not go to college, he received many honorary
higher degrees, and was offered professorships by three Universities
(including that which had been held by Longfellow and Lowell at Harvard);
but he refused these, not considering himself fitted for such work. In
his editorial capacity he gave much advice and help to authors who
afterward became famous. He died in 1920.