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William Dean Howells, 1837-1920
"Let fiction cease to lie about life; let it portray men and women as they are," wrote William Dean Howells in 1887, in celebrating the work of his close friend Mark Twain. A tireless writer who shared Twain's concern for social justice, Howells led an often-controversial campaign for realism in literature. In such novels as The Rise of Silas Lapham, which chronicled the progress of a self-made man among Boston's old social elite, he revealed his interest in "common American lives." As the editor of the prestigious Atlantic Monthly and later Harper's, Howells was not only the most widely read author in America, but he was also influential in promoting the careers of many emerging literary talents. Augustus Saint-Gaudens's likeness depicts Howells reading to his daughter Mildred.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1898 |