Howells, William D.

Born: 1837-03-01 Martins Ferry, Ohio

Died: 1920-05-11 New York, New York

William D. Howells was a newspaper editor, author, literary critic, and diplomat. Son of Welsh immigrants who embraced Quakerism, Swedenborgianism, and other unconventional philosophies, Howells grew up in a family of printers and publishers. From 1840 to 1850, Howells lived with his family in Hamilton Ohio, where his father edited and published the Hamilton Intelligencer. Howells received his education largely in the family’s print shop, setting type while mastering several languages and reading widely in English literature. The radical leanings of Howells’ parents, together with their anti-slavery politics, made them unpopular in pro-slavery Southern Ohio, costing the family its newspaper and print business in 1848. Howells’ father began editing the Dayton Transcript, but the loss of the family newspaper plunged Howells and his parents into poverty, from which they struggled to recover. In 1851, Howells moves to Columbus, Ohio, where his father worked as a legislative reporter for the Ohio State Journal. In 1852, Joshua R. Giddings hired Howells’ father to edit and publish the Ashtabula Sentinel, and Howells moved with his family to Ashtabula before settling in Jefferson. Howells set type for the Sentinel, and began his writing career, publishing his first work, a poem, in the Ohio State Journal in 1852. In 1854, Howells suffered a major breakdown, leading to various ailments over the next few years. In 1856, he began a newspaper career, writing a column for the Cincinnati Gazette and contributing to other Ohio newspapers. In 1858, Howells began to write for the Ohio State Journal and served for a short time as city editor of the Cincinnati Gazette. In 1860, he published Poems of Two Friends, a collection of verse, and Lives and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, a campaign biography. In 1861, he contributed poetry, fiction, and literary criticism to the Atlantic Monthly, Saturday Press, and other leading American publications. In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln rewarded Howells for his contribution to his election as president by making him U.S. Consul in Venice, a position he held until the end of the Civil War. Howells combined his duties as consul with articles on Venice that were published in American newspapers. Returning to the U.S. after the war, Howells embarked on a prolific literary career as a novelist, travel writer, poet, and literary critic.

Howells married Elinor Mead in December 1862. The couple had three children.

Edwin H. Cady, “Howells, William Dean,” American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 11:355-58; Susan Goodman and Carl Dawson, William Dean Howells: A Writer’s Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), xxi-xxii; Gravestone, Cambridge Cemetery, Cambridge, MA.