This first volume in a two-volume biography of William Dean Howells is the story of a series of intermingling lines of growth: the growth of admirable personality, the growth of a great career in letters, the growth of a penetrating mind, of a major command of literary art, of an influence of predominant importance to an age and to its legacy to the present. Because the importance of Howells' life lies in his novels, close attention is paid to his principal writings.

These two nouvelles mark Howells' plunge into psychological realism. Their themes-a triangle of tragic agonies with psychological insights intriguingly proto-Freudian, and a drama of miscegenation-are anything but the "smiling", lightweight topics to which Howells has been supposed to have been confined. The maturity both of their art and of their moral insight lends them an impact much deeper and more permanent than that of the shriller, more merely commercial shocking fiction of our day. Edwin H. Cady's introduction places the books in the context of the development of Howells' life, work, art, thought, and sensibility. He helps the reader make immediate contact with the artistic methods and intentions of the author.

This is a new release of the original 1958 edition.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

From 1929 to the latest issue, American Literature has been the foremost journal expressing the findings of those who study our national literature. The jouranl has published the best work of literary historians, critics, and bibliographers, ranging from the founders of the discipline to the best current critics and researchers. The longevity of this excellence lends a special distinction to the articles in American Literature.
Presented in order of their first appearance, the articles in each volume constitute a revealing record of developing insights and important shifts of critical emphasis. Each article has opened a fresh line of inquiry, established a fresh perspective on a familiar topic, or settled a question that engaged the interest of experts.Partial Contents
The Literary Background of Howells's Social Criticism (1942)/George Arms
A Note on Howells and The Smiling Aspects of Life (1945)/Edwin H. Cady
Howells, the Atlantic Monthly, and Republicanism (1952)/Louis J. Budd
The Ethical Unity of The Rise of Silas Lapham (1960)/Donald Pizer
Point of View in Howells's The Landlord at Lion's Head (1962)/William McMurray
The Architecture of The Rise of Silas Lapham (1966)/G. Thomas Tanselle
Howells and Ade (1966)/Jack Brenner
The Dark Side of Their Wedding Journey (1969)/Marion W. Cumpiano
William Dean Howells, George William Curtis, and the Haymarket Affair (1969)/Clara and Rudolf Kirk
Savagery and Civilization The Moral Dimensions of Howells's A Boy's Town (1969)/Tom H. Towers
Transformations: The Blithdale Romance to Howells and James (1976)/Robert Emmet Long
The Wilderness Within: Howell's A Boy's Town (1976)/Thomas Cooley
Invalids and Actresses: Howells's Duplex Imagery for American Women (1976)/Sidney H. Bremer
William Dean Howells and Charles W. Chestnut Criticism and Race Fiction in the Age of Booker T. Washington (1976)/William L. Andrews
Howells's Oresteia The Union of Theme and Structure in The Shadow of A Dream (1977)/Barbara L. Parker
An Interoceanic Episode: The Lady of the Aroostook (1977)/John W. Crowley