A Modern Instance (Penguin American Library)
William Dean Howellswas born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, on March 1, 1837. His father was a printer and newspaperman, and the family moved from town to town. Howells went to school where he could. As a boy he began learning the printer’s skill. By the time he was in his teens he was setting type for his own verse. Between 1856 and 1861 he worked as a reporter for theOhio State Journal. About this time his poems began to appear in theAtlantic Monthly. His campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln, compiled in 1860, prompted the administration to offer him the consulship at Venice, a post he held from 1861 to 1865. He married Elinor Gertrude Meade, a young woman from Vermont, in 1862 Paris. On his return to the United States in 1865, Howells worked in New York before going to Boston as assistant to James T. Fields ofThe Atlantic Monthly. In 1871 he became editor-in-chief of the magazine. In this position he worked with many young writers, among them Mark Twain and Henry James, both of whom became his close friends. His first novel,Their Wedding Journey, appeared in 1872.The Rise of Silas Laphamwas serialized inCentury Magazinebefore it was published in book form in 1885.A Hazard of New Fortuneswas published five years later. His position as critic, writer, and enthusiastic exponent of the new realism earnedWilliam Dean Howellsthe respected title of Dean of American Letters. He died in 1920.