The Glenwood post., 1920-05-15
WILLIAM DEAN noWEus
DIES IN new YORK

New York, May l1.-Men prominent
IN business and literary life of New
York will gather at 11.3O O'Clock to-
morrow morning in the church of the
Ascension to pay last tribute to Will
liam Dean Howells, novelist and man
of letters, who died in his sleep at his
home here early today. He was in his
Saith year. Rev. DIR. Percy Stickney
Grant, an old friend, will oificiate.
While at Savannah, Ca, three weeks
ago Mr.. Howells caught severe cold
which developed into influenza. He
was brought home and his son, John
Meade Howells and his daughter, Mil
dred, were with him when he died.
In accordance with the novelist's
wishes, his body will be cremated and
his ashes taken to Cambridge, Mass
The Post submitted the above ac-
count of Mr.. Howell death to Stephen
PEBBLES, of this city, a student and
reader, who for years has kept in touch
with the best literary talent of the
country, and as Mr.. PEBBLES is familiar
with Mr. Howells' career and his liter
airy work the following statement bv
Mr.. PEBBLES concerning him is especial
ly interesting and valuable at this
time:
In 1857 some literary men of Boston
and its neighborhood met and resolved
to start a magazine devoted, as its front
cover used to proclaim, to literature,
science, art, and politics. To this mag
azine they gave the name, at DR..
Holmes suggestion. of the Atlantic
Monthly, and he afterwards said they
called it the Atlantic, because it was a
notion.
Now this new magazine seemed TO
need but little editorial management,
for, were not Emerson and Longfellow
and Whittier and Holmes and Haw-
thorne and Mrs. Stowe prepared to con-
tribute to its pages, And their contri-
buttons would of course be acceptable.
To secure reviews for certain books
that seemed worth reviewing, to make
such selection of the abundant contri-
buttons offered that the space limits
should not be passed. that seemed prot
ty nearly to limit the EDITORS function.
Thus for ten years and more. Then
one day in the late sixties very we'll
remember that my literary mentor said
to me that new life was about to be
infused into our favorite magazine
through the Introduction into its editor
ial department of a young man from
the West.
This young man, W. D. Howells, had,
in 1860 written campaign Life Of
Lincoln which secured for him, in 1861
the appointment of consul to Venice.
And here, in Italy. he secured the ma
terials for many of those delightful
stories which we all read.
He became assistant editor for the
Atlantic, and, on the retirement of Jas
T. Fields in 1879, its editor-in-chicf.
This position he held for nine years,
and it used to be said that he was so
conscientious in the discharge of his
duties that he would sometimes reject
his own manuscripts. But he very sell
dom revealed his editorial hand to tho
public. Indeed, I remember but one
case of such revealing: Elizabeth
Stuart Phelps had, very doubtfully,
submitted the manuscript of story,
following the same lines of story
which Howells, himself had recently
written and published. "Would not
the public think?' etc. etc Then the
editor published the letter he wrote to
his contributor to reassure her.
We have his own words for the fact
that these nine years were the pleas
of dream he had that he had again
come back to take charge of the At
lantic. But it, indeed. he did lose some
of the pleasures of living by his retire
ment, wc-his contemporaries greatly
gained. For undoubtedly, If he had re-
NAMED cncumbered with the arfuous
duties of an editor of great maya
zine. his creation would have been much
restricted, and we should have been
deprived of the compan icmship of many
ff the most agreeable characters We
have ever known.
His novels are not great in the sense
IN which George Eliot's novels were
great or Thackcry's, but they are trne
TO the simple experiences Of my life