The Washington herald., 1907-03-03
THE uoYDEx. arAncH.


shut IN the sCtoo,rom q the wood
Throughout the session vi TIC ,ezI.
But marx her scatter as she goes
Her lessoa-passs. left aud right
What old December gave so white.
The rogue hath stained with green and &c.
The rain-droDs cling along her dress;
Her scarlet checks and lips are wet
And she hath twincd q violet
HaA-opcucd. in each Maynard trcss.
Tbs banter Of her saucy tong,e-
Iiko han against the window pane
Is scarcely gone. when through TIE raln
The echo u sob Is HIns.
The sweetness Of the maid to be
The violeis along her hair
Hint softly. Tray yOu leave them there
Chid-woHau March seems best 10 me-
Garnet Noel Wiley. in March putnam's Monthly
The literary event OF the week just past
has been the celebration Of the SEVENTEEN
birthday OF the Dean of American Let
tcrs,1 Mr. William Dean HoWelIs who
not only in the fine work that he has
done but in his life has proved fine ex-
ample for American youth The career
OF Mr.. HOweIs is the more inspiring be-
cause he is, what so many good Americans
grandfather. who was Welsh. came 70
tbs country early in the nineteenth cen
tury and settled in Ohio. His father was
n printer by trade, and an editor in n
small way, and was plying his trade
when HOWeIs was born, March /. 1897. in
Martins Ferry. Ohio. OF his boyhoOd
any one who chooses can get a full rec
ord by reading Mr.. Howells' book a
Boys Town." which is held by worthy
critics to be the best autobiography of a
boy ever written. more true, and there
fore more satisfactory, than Daudet's lie
Petit Chose" which has those imaginative
qualities which Mr.. Howells sedulously
avoided. The father was fond of reading
aloud, and though Mr. Howells has con
fessed that these evening readings some
times wearied him, he heard. thus, such
books as Thompson's Seasons COWper
Goldsmith. Burns, Scott, Byron, and
Moore, and perhaps this helped toward
giving him that passion for books which
marked his early youth
Il was rather poor family into which
Mr.. Howelis had been born, and the fam
lily fortunes finally went 10 crash. where
upon, rs Howells tells us we all went
down TO the river and went in swim
ming But aftcrward he went to work
becoming u compositor on the Ohio State
Journal at 81 a week. He was graduated
from the composing room into the front
office and al twenty-five he became nows
editor of the Columbus State Journal.
All this time he was supporting himself
and about this period of his life he made
the acquaintance of John J. Piatt. and
with him wrote Poems of Two Friends
q book which led to his becoming 4 con-
tributor TO the Atlantic Monthly. Then
came a biography Of Abraham Lincoln
which did the young author signal ser
vice. It not Only won him some literary
reputation, it resulted. when Lincoln was
elected, in the appointment of Howells as
United States consul TO Venice. The
money which he received for the biogra-
ply was expended on his wedding trip, a
voyage TO Boston via Montreal. which af-
terward resulted in that admirable book.
Their Wedding Journey" During this
trip he met Lowell. Holmes. and other lit
eTaTy lights.
The years in Venice extended largely
the education of the young author. who
already had a smattering of German
Spanish, and French, and who now added
italian. On his return 10 this country
he worked for various newspapers for "a
time, and then, in 1872, became assistant
editor Of the Atlantic Monthly. a posi-
ton he held until 1881. when he resigned
TO devote his attention entirely 70 origi-
nal literary work. 1t was he who estab-
nshed on the Atlantic the Contributors
Club
But it was with the publication Of His
Wedding Journey" the real literary ca
reer of HoweHs had begun. His poems
are regarded by critics rs the experiments
OF a rather clever lad; his critical work
has always been regarded as more or less
Of a by-product. It was his vocation to
be novelist. and from 1871 on novel at
ter novel came from his pen, and al
though they came rapidly. there was
never any marks of undue haste, of
carelessness of workmanship, or Of fall
Ing off in quality.
To-day, in his SEVENTEEN year, Mr.
Howells stands as the leading exponent
Of the American realists. He has never
believed in the story just for the story's
sake Always he has held that the fuuC-
ton of the novelist is to represent life.
Always he read much, and he has more
than once publicly regretted the time he
spent on the classics, thinking that he
could have got more from the moderns.
At Cambridge he came to appreciate
TOurguenief, whom he greatly admired,
and in an article on My Literary Pas
siOns' he tells US:
now think that there is finer and truer
method than his, but N Its way Toursueuiefs
method is as far art can go that is 20
20 say, his fiction IS IN the last degree
dramatic Tia persons are sparsely described and
briefly accounted lur. and then they arc left 70
transact their affair, Whatever II s. with the least
possible comment OF explanation from the author
When I remembered the deliberate ard i'm
pertinent moTalizing Of Thackeray, the clumsy
excgess Of George Eliot, the knowing mods aud
winks Of Charles Reade the stage carpeuterins
and hmelighting Of Dickens even the fne aud
important analysis Of Hawthorne it was with a
3oyful establishment that / realized the great art
OF ToUusueniei.
Tolstoi affected him too; early he
came 10 love Henry James. but what
ever his literary likes and dislikes ho
went on steadily creating. and for many
years now has been the most popular
writer Of his class in America His
magazine work, too. has always been
OF the highest class, and TO the younger
generation his literary farces have af-
forded delight and entertainment. One
other thing: The influence Of Shakes
peare on his career has been marked
and 1t viii be found that most Of his
best books owe their titles to the i'm
mortal bard: one has only to recall
The Quality OF Mercy. "A Circle in
the Waters" "A Foregone Conclusion"
The Undiscovered Country" and ~
Hazard OF New Fortunes" to see how
true this is.
And recalling fHve bie fondnoue for