Charles Dudley Warner

“ Howells regards Count Leo Tolstoi as the first of all novelists that have written. Howells adds to his theory of realism the notion that genius is merely the power of taking conscientious pains. In practice he is a methodical and industrious worker, with a keen literary conscience, mindful of the responsibilities of a writer, serious in mind, but genial and even gay in temperament, and a delightful talker and companion. ”

“ About this time he began his acquaintance with Spanish literature. While editor of the "Atlantic Monthly," he edited with delightful introductory essays a series of "Choice Autobiographies." His first tentative attempt at a story in "Their Wedding Journey" was so successful with the public that it determined his career as a writer of fiction, and since he dissolved his connection with the "Atlantic" he has pursued the career of a professional man of letters, devoting himself mainly to fiction, with the occasional production of plays, travel sketches, and literary criticism. ”

“ In 1852 he returned to New York and took a place in the Astor library, where he remained as assistant until 1859, still pursuing his studies in languages, and in making a collection of Icelandic books, which soon became the most considerable in this country. So enthusiastically had he directed his attention to that enlightened island that it was said that few natives were more familiar with its geography, history, politics, and literature than he. In 1859-'60 he was general secretary of the American geographical society. ”

“ The chief fruits of this journey were the essays on Italian art and literature and his eminence as a student and interpreter of Dante. In the autumn of 1852 he was again in America, and in October, 1853, he sustained the greatest sorrow of his life in the death of his wife, who had long been an invalid. ”

“ Called upon to settle no serious international differences, he bore himself with the tact and dignity that was to be desired in our representative to a great and friendly power, mindful always that his mission was to maintain cordial amity instead of seeking causes of alienation. ”

“ He had been a principal promoter in this country of the contribution of a library on the celebration of the National millennium, and upon his arrival he was the guest of the nation and accorded honors seldom if ever given before by one nation to a private citizen of another. ”

“ In 1851, when the father was clerk of the house at the state capital, Howells worked as a compositor on the "Ohio State Journal," earning four dollars a week, which he contributed to the family treasury. It was here that he made the acquaintance of John J. Piatt, an intimacy which stimulated his poetical tendency. In 1851 the family removed to Ashtabula, and all found employment on the "Sentinel," which the elder Howells purchased; but this newspaper was subsequently transferred to Jefferson, where it continued under the management of the family. ”

“ This satire was an event of the first importance in the history of the world's literature. In wit, scholarship, and penetrating knowledge of human nature, it took the place, which it has ever since maintained, of a masterpiece. Age has only increased its reputation, and it is a recognized classic both in England and America. The test of its power and universality is the constant quotation from it on both sides of the Atlantic. Locally its effect was amazing. It consisted of a series of poems in the Yankee dialect, ostensibly by Mr. ”

“ And no man in our generation has done more than Lowell to raise American institutions and American character in the estimation of our English kin. His graceful and natural oratory was in demand on scores of public occasions. The most noteworthy of his public addresses was that on Coleridge, delivered at the unveiling of the bust of the poet in Westminster Abbey in May, 1885. The volume entitled “Democracy and other Addresses” (Boston, 1887) includes the foreign speeches, and those spoken at the dedication of the public library of Chelsea and at the Harvard anniversary. Mr. ”

“ This tendency is best exemplified in the modern Russian school, which is remorseless in its fidelity to the actual, the lowly, the sordid, the sinful, and the sorrowful in life, and accepts the inevitable, the fateful, without sarcasm, but with a tender pity. Because he portrays life as it is, or rather has the power of transferring the real, throbbing, human life, and not merely its incidents, to his pages as no writer has done before, Mr. ”

“ Breen's Practice" (1883) ; "A Modern Instance" (1883) ; "A Woman's Reason" (1884) ; "Three Villages" (1885) : "The Rise of Silas Lapham" (1885) ; "Tuscan Cities" (1885) ; "A Little Girl among the Old Masters," drawings by his daughter (1886) ”