davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
SiIas Lapham Was Easy TO Find
Walking the Streets of Boston

Howells was married at Paris December
25, 1859, to Elinor G. Mead sister of Larkn
Mead the sculptor and had one son and
two daughters Amazing industry and sys-
tenn, in a happy home, enabled him to pour
out a stream Of fiction during life and even
to posthumous publication. Besides his novels
were farces plays, stories for children, works
OF biography and critical analysis, until few
authors excelled him in voluminousness He
died May 10. 1920.
II my verdict is worth anything name
"a Hazard of New Fortunes" and THE Rise
OF Sas Lapham" as Howells's best in formal
fiction, while OF all his farces PLAYS and
stories for children that about the little
maid who wished that Christmas would
come every day leads.
During seven years in Boston, enjoying
richly it's literary hospitality, how often
met that Mr.. Lapham! There he was, in
church and on the street and in evening
amusement and company Sometimes even
I discovered him at those afternoon teas
which DIR. o. W. Holmes described in terms
of the three Gs. of tongue palate and feet.
There he was. l say. whether godly or god
less. Puritan or pragmatic. He was usually
the boy who had come from the country
with a quarter in his pocket. Now he knew
that God was good and the universe had
worked for his benefit because ne had be-
come rich He was orthodox" or Liberal"
as the case might be, but under all DISCUSSES
of creed or clothing. whether of ass. wolf or
sheep. the same Silas Lapham! When Col.
Harvey gave his dinner in New York to- all
the Harper authors, but with first honors
to the dean OF American letters, how fitting
In Robert w Chambers TO assume the garb,
pose and gesture Of Back Bay Silas. and in
original verse to celebrate the creature while
glorifying the Boston creatorl
Well. "time was our tedious tale should
here have ending" Whatever be the re-
morseless Judgment which time may pass en-
Howels's work, this torch shall ever burn
brightly from his tomb. He believed. un-
waverlngly. in his country. His quality Of
Americanism is unchalenged. In this view
his fame is impregnable before enemies or
critical attacks and is proof against even
convulslons in taste or society, for he set
forth the truth veritabe Puritan he
was in faithfulness TO his creed OF realism.
Nor. because he saw into and behind phe-
nomena was he any the less faithful 70 the
eternal verities upon which change leaves
no saddening trace" He who studies How
ellis may sometimes mourn the reality which
he sees in men and the world. but he is
not. because Of his reading. any the less
"obedicnt TO The heavenly vision"
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

N response to the request Of the Academy
of Arts and Letters that he speak ON
\ Howells as poet, Robert Frost began
a letter to me with the following lines:
Il am tempted to accept your invitation
for the chance it would give me, the only
one I may ever have, to discharge in down
right prose the great debt owe howehs.
Howells himself sent me The Mother ana
the Father after he saw my North OF Bos-
tom His beautiful blank verse; just what
should have known from his prose he would
write.
my obligation to him. however. is not for
the particular things he did in verse form,
but for the perennial poetry OF all his writ
ing In all forms. learned from him long
time ago that the loveliest theme of poetry
was the voices of people. No one ever had
a more observing ear or clearer imaginauon
for the tones of those voices. No one ever
brought them more freshly to book. He
recorded them equally with action, indeed as
IL they 1oere action"
II Is along this line that Mr. Frost will
speak at the Howells memorial meeting In
the Public Library on March l, and 1t gives
me peculiar pleasure to have him confirm
nv own feeling with regard to Howells's
poetry. Beginning in imitation of Spanish
or German models, he achieved very IN
dividual and hence American quality. From
compressed and lovely little lyrics in the
manner Of Heine, he passed to longer mar
rative poems in the measure of Longfellow.
but soon after his settling to work In Cam
bridge he wrote What the Oriole sings
and "Mulberries" which have their own
music and their own simplicity OF dictton
Later he wrote series of very sad but very
beautiful poems which came together at
last as Stops from Various Quills," but In
the long poem called 'The Mother and the
Father" most poignant expression OF the
exquisite JOY and the bitter sorrow OF parent
hood he reached his most individual blank
verse form. 1t is to this poem that Mr.. Frost
refers.
1t was to emphasize this too little known
side OF Howells that we approached Mr..
Frost, and it is a source of deep qualification
to the officers of the academy that he is able
to come and present something which he
holds very close to his heart
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

been in the dearth OF histories that merited
reading after Goldsmith's Greece and Rome;
except Irving'e Conquest OF Granada,
found none that could read.
I'm my leisure from the printing office I
was, In fact, cultivating a sufficiently thank
less muse in the imitation OF Pope and Gold
smith. for In me. more than his other chill
6ren. my father had OWNED and encouraged
tho love of poetry; but In reproducing his
poets, as constantly did, to his greater
admiration than mine, I sometimes had a
dfsculty which did not carry TO him
There In no harm In now submitting IL TO
the reader. who may have noted In his own
case tho serious disadvantage of writing
about love when he had as yet had no ex-
periencc of tho passion"
Speaking OF himself in the third person
he writes:
THE Tliad' he found tiresome and noisy;
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
The Ancestors of the Novelist
Were Quakers That Came From Wales

Ever the artist and the realist were as
Siamese twins, born with an equal inherit
ance What was Howells's heredity? What
as seen from the Ohio frontier. was the 'old
land, our [hisl fathers held so dear?"
Ask history and her lips respond-the
same that produced the three great prophets
of our spiritual liberty, three-fourths of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence
and possibly one fourth of all the colonists
usually called English" The same blood
as theirs mingled with other strains in eight
of the Presidents. What but Wales--which
sent across the sea Roger Williams Will
lam Penn and Thomas Jefferson? The great
grandfather of Howells. Welsh Quaker, we
are told introduced into his home town the
manufacture Of the flannel for which Wales
is famous. Then. with democratic tendencies
he crossed the Atlantic and settled in Ohio.
Howellss father, who was a printer and
newspaper publisher. had library very rich
in poetry while in his home fine manners
were reckoned as assets more to be desired
than cash.
When Lincoln was nominated, the young
man, William Dean Howells, wrote O cam
paign biography, which netted him $3.50.
How like a youth full of literary ambitions
to make quick investment In a programme
which did indeed make the greenbacks dis
appear, but enriched brain and heart while
laying in abundant provisions for the mind!
With this Lincoln viaticum he made trip
to Boston and Montreal, seeing the world
in the best way. In Boston he met Long
fellow and j. r. Lowell, then the editorial
magnate of the magazine whose history is
In itself an American Academy of Letters.
and of which he was afterward to be the
editor for years.
From the very first this boy. whether at
home abroad. roughing it in the forest,
moving in the crowded city or shut up in an
Office, ever cultivated the art of seeing
things Most human beings are more or less
like idols. they have eyes but they see not
Even the sisters of the human family
acknowledge that Howells tells us more
about the ins and outs of rwomanlSind than
any other ictionist.
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
His Realism First Showed Itself
in His Early Book on Venice

Many are the rewards to the diligent au-
thor, apart from publishers checks or the
coin of the commonwealth. Fortune favored
the brave. For his Lincoln biography he was
made United States Consul at Venice. Here
diately before him. rather than to peer into
ghostland or set down romance and tradi-
ton. with his pen he pictured in choice
phrase the Venice of the nineteenth century.
Indeed It was probably the success won from
his Venetian Days that initiated him.
while his italian Journeys" confirmed him,
in being not only professed realist, but
even a defiant champion and hardened vet
eran In chronic defence OF realism For
gotten may now be hts charges, lance
thrrlsts and battle blows from the Editors
Study and Editors Easy Chair in Hdrper's.
but they were certainly polemic.
No conclave OF consstory at Rome, no
deverance from Canterbury. no Synod or
General Assembly, or Sayhrook Platform
defined with more amplitude or precision. or
dulness, or more dogmatically, what was
necessary to faith" than did Howells, who
laid down what was orthodoxy in fiction.
Perhaps the war never will end between
the idealists and romancers and the realists.
Possibly Il ought not TO cease. for we need
both and each should be kept in fighting
trim. Certainly Howells led the hosts on
our soil, who make OF realism a discipline OF
life as well as their path and goal.
Indeed we are not certain but that How
ellis influenced also the study OF history and
raised I'D n school Of realists in historiogra-
ply, without, however. the happi-st results.
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
The Great Unpublished

were afterward dug out, and you can see
them in the italian museum.
There are many other famous manuscripts
which never reached publisher. Beowulf
and Caedmon are among those that time has
preserved in glass cases 1t rather lightens
my grief.
Many chapters in this book are calcu-
lated 20 make one sit up and think-if ne
is reader. There is a chapter on the his
tory of writing from the ancient hero
glyphics OF King Send to the modern hero
glyphics of Harold Bell Wright. These two
names, Int fact, conclude a circle. They also
prove IN a manner the indestructibilty of
the nonsense instinct in man. King Send
is still puzzle to our wisest Harold Bell
Wright viii always be. The ability to write,
like the distribution of the divine fire.
should have been in the beginning restrict
ed to few. Was II an all-wise Providence
that put into the hands of every being born
of woman the power OF deforestauon
What q squanhering OF woodpulp and brain
pulpl
There is chapter on literary forgeries In
which one Chatterton is taken to task for
perpetrating some Rowley poems on the
world. Mr.. MADAM says It was a pity that
such bright. promising young man as
Chatterton should have tried to hide his
light under a Rowley, and he tells us-as
though he had some doubts about 1t him
self--that Doctor Johnson-that ethereal
mastodon OF English letters-admitted that
this Thomas Chatterton was the most ex-
traordinaTy young man that had encoun-
tered his knowledge"
This gives us pause. II Doctor Johnson
and Falconer MADAM both agree on this tbs
meet that look UP this fellow Chatterton
and find out who he really was Maybe his
real name was Tom Rowley. beated
literary adventure. indeedl
There is a fulgurating chapter on the
errors of scribes. All scribes were notorious
for the respectable lives they lived secretly.
While at work In the Union squares OF their
day they ioked and wassahed and sparked
while plying their pens. IT As thus that, like
many an honest proofreader, they put
doublets into masterpieces and planted semi
colons where they should have inoculated
the page with commas. Why only lately we
saw in a catalogue:
Mil on the Floss. ........A. $500
:" Liberty ....,..... .Sl.75
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
HOWELLS BEGAN AS A POET
ABOUT AU 10 RS

dress sword, brought the greetings of both
the Republic and the French Academy
But what did the alert sentinel Howells
propose while the firing line In the
American trenches awaiting the possible
onset OF the wits and the funny men? 1t
was nothing less than the making of an
English grammar The book was to bear
the imprint of the Institute. None OF your
Lindley Murays aping of English grad
grinds! No. but real grammar OF Ameri-
can speech and writing! And there, before
him, he thought, sat able scholars, at once
jaunty and competent who could make it
They would expose Criticisms while reveal
ing the riches of the American tongue.
The discussion, thus preciptated with sud-
denness. ended less In a defeat than in a
drawn battle. Rather Scotch in its verdict
1t was mot proven" that the Institute in it's
cradle days ought to make the attempt. Be-
Sides who wanted to volunteer for the job?
So President Howells accepted the issue
with resignation that bordered on the
Christian phase. Patience took her seat on
the monument smiling at grief / shall
never forget that look. AS with whittiers
Stonewall. "A shade of sadness I. over
the face of the leader came" The little
flag had been waved and the cry of loyalty
to American letters raised-only to meet
veto volley. Nevertheless every one pres
ent, then and thereafter felt that he who
toucHeS u Ialr OF yOn grey nead' SnOuld
die like dog" Then the Institute marched
on and soon-a few months later--the man
defeated at this Frederick episode of the
Institute dinner. yet best beloved of all the
members. sat crowned with the presidency
OF the newly formed Academy.
On later occasions we had the delight be-
des informal chats at dinners Of hearing
Howells address us ALL Then he defended
the selective process by which the Institute
had been formed-by evolution and the
choice of others; that is. from the members
Of the American Social Science Association
in 1898 and the creation n due time. accord
ing to the fundamental law in its charter,
of the Academy.
A few years later, by previous unanimous
choice, the seventh medal and the initial one
for fiction struck by the Institute and de-
signed by one of s.members was awarded
the great realist at it's meeting in Boston
Howels could not be present on account of
sickness. but DIR. Hamilton W. Mabie. in
choicest diction and with feiicitous manner.
set before us most vividly "Howells the
Literary Artist"
Truly, artist Howells was from first to
last-from log cabin to New York residence
and from the boy rhymester. who in his
fathers pr nting office in Ohio set his
own verses in type. until the day of triumph
when draughtsmen and coorists found joy
in lending their genius to illustrate his
books
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

n
\A/ review / felt that both a compli-
ment and a sarcastic dig were in
tended for all my books are still in manu-
script. Which makes me both an authority
on books that are born but that are not
yet swaddled between covers and sharp"
on the value of manuscripts.
But see in looking through this volume
that am In some famous company. Along
with my own books that have not seen the
light of printers ink is manuscript of a
story done on a false door OF tomb In the
Gizeh Museum. near Cairo. II Ia an illus
trated story in which lady dressed In the
altogether fashion of TriIby's time sits op-
posite man who is the dead image of
Bugs" Baer The o. Henry written around
II was done about three thousand years be-
fore the tragic episode around Calvary and
some five thousand years before the appear
ance OF Voliva-v volstead. No publisher for
It has been found up to this writing, al
though our friend, Horace Liveright Is look
ing into the matter.
In the Louvre which narrowly escaped
transportation to Berlin, is another unac-
cepted manuscript-the Papyrus Prisse
This was rejected by the Dodd Mead a
Co. OF Alexandria, Egypt about forty-fve
hundred years ago II has been going the
round OF the publishers since then 1t In
classic wheeze on how to be wise by the
DR.. Crane of the age.
In Berlin there s a rejected manuscript
by Timotheus, very old and extra dry II In
woman's curse. She had Timotheus on
her stafr apparently and he sent out whiz-
ger on woman's rights Tins writing In
scraggly, and he probably spent his scriven-
er's obole at the corner tavern, for there
are wine colored stains at the corners of
the script.
In the National Museum OF Naples we find
a writer who did his income tax on a wax
tablet--about so B. c. IL is in Latin. The
burden of the scribble is that he rendered
unto Cesar all that was Csesar's and what
was left over he wore.
Old man P1iny's library of rejected mas
terpieces was hit hard by the blowing up
OF the stills on vesuvius in 70 A. ID. IL is
ropularly known as the Last Days of Pom
peii," by Bulwer-Lytton. The flames fell
on the Elder Piiny's DOLBY and ruined a
great many Of his rejection slips. These
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
8zM &&<xQ

Mr.. Garland has received also a letter
from Anna Catherine Markham, secretary
of the Poetry Society of America and wife
of the poet We are permitted to quote
these lines:
-Mr. Markham dedicated his latest book
Of verse to Mr.. Howells
ITO that lover of Justice and Brother hood
Who has had the courage
To take Improbable risks
To that writer who wears the greatest honor
And bears the greatest name
In our contemporary letters
William Dean Howells.'
This came to Mr.. Howells in the book
as he lay dying and seemed to touch him
deeply. Among the last letters he ever
wrote was one to Mr. Markham regarding
the book, saying: I shall love it, love it.
and soon hope to be able to praise 1t ade-
quately.'
Howells's own story of the waking of the
poetic faculty I'm him and of his first efforts
In verse is given in his Days of My Youth"
CIarper) from which the following passages
are quoted.
perhaps there was already in my early
literary preferences q bent toward the real
ity which my gift, II may call it SO, has
since taken. / did not willingly read poetry,
except such pieces as / memorized: little
tragedies Of the sad fate of orphan children
and the cruelties OF large birds to small
ones which brought the lump into my
throat, or the moralized song of didactic
English writer's of the eighteenth century,
such as Pity the sorrows of poor old man.
That piece still partly know by heart; but
history was what liked best, and If /
finally turned to fiction it seems to have
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

Contents page of a volume of his verse
i'm which Howells wrote the place where
each poem was composed, for his friend
Hamilton Easter Field, by whose per-
mission IL Is reproduced
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
Reading HoweHs After Hawthorne,
Poe and Cooper Brought a Shocl


What commonplace stuff in this new
writer. Howells! Digestion, sausage crack
ers. twiddle-twaddle of small folk in vapid
conversation on ordinary levels, railroad
fares. hotel squabbes and overheard
versation of commercial victor and
quished! Were Americans all so ordinary,
even to banality?
Verify such realism at first as dis
enchanting the Oriental" magnificence
long read about seen on stage or in haze
of idealization, but now looked at all around
one at closer range and behind the stage
Yes, true, The first reading of Howells
was a shock, even while Turing one to the
fnis. And then also, what wholesome rev.
elation to Europe-far SURPRISING in fact
and truth Cooper and the comet train of
his f1imsy imitators-of the real America,
What revelations also to the Americans of
their country and of themselves to them
selves! What pictures of their hopes fears
and aspirationsl
His novels soon began to fall like enrich
ing raindrops on the thirsty earth--not
that we read all by any means, life being
too short and time too rich in opportunities
of work and enjoyment elsewise and else
where. This brace of emotions mingled in
at least one reader dislike, even often to
disgust, at the level earthiness of the talk.
reproductions of things Of which in daily
times-yes, even to nausea. Nevertheless,
underneath all one felt the pulses OF joy.
of hope, of pride in achievement and of
longing for the higher things that possessed
the Americans and their lover, friend and
portrayer Meanwhile and throughout, adj
miration for the artist was like that akin to
the wonder inspired by a rainbow, or an
Aurora, with curiosity to how it was
done. We felt as they who look on in the
potter's or the sculptor's studio, when, out
of common earth become plastic, things of
fascinating, at times heavenly beauty.
arose.
So Howells persevered In picturinG what.
to use his own phrase in "A World OF
Chance" was native and indigenous" He
resolved to depict conditions strictly and
peculiarly American" II he mae even ~
himself spiritual nudity"--to qps,-- IN
again, for his books are chargvd with force
of autobiographical origin-he refused 60 he
abashed Naked and not ashamed" be re-
vealed his own soul and that OF the average
American.
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

The birthday of the distinguished American author who died
celebrated March
the American Academy of Arts Letters
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

There is a chapter on 'Tluminations" 1t
is purely academic-and who Of us believe
in academic illumlnations?
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

One sees to-day dumping ground very rich
in the output of history of the sort that
professors write and which is of enormous
area. The filling up of this space began
from the era of Venetian Days" Howells
printed the chapters of this book on Venice
first in England and won recognition there
His was so totally different from such books
as Hare and Ruslxin.o or sentimental tourists
wrote that some of the English critics de-
clared that such naked realism made even
a more pleasing appeal to the imagination
At this the American probably rubbed his
hands in glee. At any rate we find hence
forth this strain and method not only in his
numerous books of travels but in his novels.
which number scores.
Returning to his native shores, he spent
some time In New York journalism-for he
had the knowledge, then greatly in demand,
of European literature and politics. Going
to Boston and on the staff of the Atlantic
Monthly, he was later for several years it's
editor. He was also of the coterie that met
at Longfellow's house to comment on the
poets translation of Dante. Meanwhile
Howells studied Spanish, and then, in 1877.
came out his initial novel, Their Wedding
Journey"
1t was in feudal and interior Japan, with
out white man within 200 miles that
had read in order the previous American
writer's of fiction-Irving, Cooper, Haw-
thorne Poe. But when Howellss novel
came-how different the note! No halo of
European legend no idealization Of the sons
of the forest figures voices from Puri
tan ghostland, no chamber of horrors or
Raven over the bust of Pallas!
The New York herald., 1921-02-27
BY Falconer

BOOKS IN MANUSCRIPT BY Falconer
MADAM. Il. p Dutton Co.
Reviewed by BENJAMIN DE CASSERES
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

w THEN L received the above book for
M review / felt that both a compli-
" ment and sarcastic dig were in
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

CON T K N rs.
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

r HAVE often wondered how the worthless
Of antiquity would look to me had
the chance to sit opposite or alongside
The New York herald., 1921-02-27

r N response to the request Of the Academy
of Arts and Letters that he speak on
Howels as poet, Robert Frost began
The Cordova daily times., 1921-01-22


 J. K. Callbreath, who has charge of the commission barns at Riley creek, arrived in town on business. It is his first visit in town in more than three months.
 John Swedal and associates, who have been awarded a contract out the line, south of Healy, left for the can yon to prepare for work.
 Fred Hanson, of the Hot Springs district, came down from Fairbanks on the train, en route to his home down the river.
 General Storekeeper R. S. Donald son made a trip to the end of steel. Section Foreman Dan Leach came in from Olnes