The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-02
Mr. HOWeLLS AND HIS NEW PLACE.
Leaving Harper's to Become the Editor
of The Cosmopolitan.

| of The Cosmopolitan.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, Dec. 2l.-In literary circles
and among publishers as well the topic OF
conversation for some days past has been
the new arrangements made by William
ID. Howells 1t had been supposed that he
was as permanent an attraction of Harper's
Magazine perhaps as George William Cur
It's himself, and when the announcement
was made that Mr. HoWells would imme-
| diately sever his connection with the Har-
pers and would become the editor of The
Cosmopolitan Magazine, it was quite nat
ural that much surprise should be occa-
stoned thereby. Mr. Howells leaves
magazine whose success has been one OF
the phenomena of periodic literature and
associates himself with another whose
promise of success is almost equally phe-
homenal.
After Mr.. Howells won his sours by his
essays on Venetian life, and by his first
novels, which many regard as the most in
teresting if not the best, he won a very
prominent position in letters by becoming
the editor of The Atlantic Monthly. It has
not been generally known, but it is a fact
that Mr.. Howells was persuaded to accept
this post against his own inclination. Very
eminent men in letters had served as editor
of it, and had made it the most distinc-
lively literary magazine in the United
States. Mr.. HowellS was inclined to think
that such capacity as he possesses is in the
direction Of creative work rather than edi-
torial, and he had not served as editor Of
The Atlantic year before he was con-
WINGED that he was right. He had some
IF ne Inv
for every one who sent contribution to
the magazine.
Thackeray made poor editor of Cornhill,
and confessed in private to his friends that
he was too soft hearted to serve as editor at
all. That to some extent was one of Nj
Howells' troubles, and besides the drudgery
and patience which are entailed by con-
scientious work at editing were repugnant
to him, and, he believed, cramped his Gre
alive faculty He therefore resigned tho
editorship of The Atlantic, and it is no dis
paragemenU to Mr. Howelis literary quail
ties to say that the magazine under his
editorial control was generally thought
scarcely to maintain its high reputation.
Howells seemed like schoolboy about
beginning vacation when his day in The
Atlantic Office closed. He plunged into
light Every morning at o'clock fodnd
him at his desk, and he staid there until
the hour of lunch. Sometimes he turned
out thousand words of copy, occasionally
a little more, but rarely less than 800. He
also began that critical study of life rs be
saw it about him, the results CT which
have been made manifest in his later nov
els, and he also revealed a tendency TO
favor what may be called, for want of a
better term, the higher socialism. That
tendency has grown more and more ap-
parent with each novel, and some of Mr.
HOwells' admirers are inclined to think
that it is due somewhat to his fOndness for
the works Of Tolstoi, the Russian novelist,
who became a socialist not only in theory
but in practice.
Mr.. HOwells used occasionally to visit
New York and make what he thought
were studies of some phases of the social
question. But it has always been apparent
TO those who know New York on all sides
that Mr.. Howells' view, although invested
with all his literary charm, was a super
fetal one. There are no literary men who
know New York as some of the more ac
complished reporters of the great news
papers do and some OF Mr.. HOwells' themes
and Characterization which he thought
were realistic have caused a smile to come
TO the lips of such reporters.
The Harpers made their arrangements
with Mr. Howells some five years ago. He
was to be the editor Of Il new department
of the magazine, and was also to furnish
to the Harpers several novels to be pub
lished serially. His name has caused his
department TO be watched with keen inter
est by literary people but outside of that
class his essays have not attracted much
attention. They have been mostly pleas for
realism in fiction and attacks upon the ro-
mantle methods of those whose works have
made their names dear to all readers. In
one of his essays Howells intimated that
Dickens, Sir Walter Scott or Thackeray
would not be tolerated If they were to write
at the present time. Ana this comment
brought upon his head storm of criticism
both from American and European writer's
While Mr.. Howells' novels were regard
ed as feature ia the magazine, it became
apparent that his name was greater than
his popularity.
Mr. Howells undoubtedly has been led
to make the change partly from pecuniary
considerations. Ii the reports are true he
can count for several years on an income
from his writings and from his editorial
position of something like 50, 600 year
He is getting along TO the age when the
creative faculty is believed to diminish in
power, and his friends are of opinion that
he feels that he must now, If ever, secure \
reasonable competency. so that when old
age comes upon him he viii not be abso-
lutely dependent upon his pen.
L. J. EDWARDS
The Worthless Servant.