John William Crowley - The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells
Here you can read online John William Crowley - The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 1999, publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press, genre: Detective and thriller. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:
Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.
Book:
The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells
The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells: summary, description and annotation
We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.
John William Crowley: author's other books
Who wrote The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.
The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work
Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.
The Dean of American Letters : The Late Career of William Dean Howells
author
:
Crowley, John William.
publisher
:
University of Massachusetts Press
isbn10 | asin
:
1558492402
print isbn13
:
9781558492400
ebook isbn13
:
9780585322681
language
:
English
subject
Howells, William Dean,--1837-1920--Last years, Novelists, American--19th century--Biography, Critics--United States--Biography.
publication date
:
1999
lcc
:
PS2033.C74 1999eb
ddc
:
813/.4
subject
:
Howells, William Dean,--1837-1920--Last years, Novelists, American--19th century--Biography, Critics--United States--Biography.
Page iii
The Dean of American Letters
The Late Career of William Dean Howells
John W. Crowley
Page iv
Copyright 1999 by The University of Massachusetts Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America LC 99-29050 ISBN 1-55849-240-2 Designed by Milenda Nan Ok Lee Printed and bound by Sheridan Books, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crowley, John William, 1945 The Dean of American Letters : the late career of William Dean Howells / John W. Crowley. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-55849-240-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Howells, William Dean, 18371920Last years. 2. Novelists, American19th century Biography. 3. CriticsUnited States Biography. I. Title. PS2033.C74 1999 813'.4dc21 [B] 99-29050 CIP
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data are available.
Page v
In memory of my father, John A. Crowley Jr. and in tribute to the men who mentored me, especially Edwin E. Barlow
Page vi
Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Introduction Bill of Particulars
1
One Howells in 1890: The Unsmiling Aspects of Life
5
Two The Man of Letters as a Man of Business
25
Three The Making of "The Dean of American Letters"
45
Four The Age of Howells
65
Five A Dead Cult: Unmaking "The Dean"
91
Notes
111
Index
139
Page ix
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to David J. Nordloh for helpful suggestions. For permission to reuse material first published elsewhere, I thank The New England Quarterly, in which part of chapter 5 first appeared, and the University of Missouri Press, publisher of Biographies of Books: The Compositional Histories of Notable American Writings (1996), edited by James Barbour and Tom Quirk, in which part of chapter 1 first appeared.
Page 1
Introduction Bill of Particulars
Afew years ago, during a brief vogue of mistress memoirs (boudoir tittle-tattle of the wannabe rich and famous), Veronica Geng reluctantly disclosed her torrid affair with Chairman Mao:
Until now, writing a book about this well-known man has been the farthest thing from my mindexcept perhaps for writing a book about someone else.... But how can I hide while other women publish? Even my friends are at it. Betty Ann is writing Konnie!: Adenauer in Love. Cathy and Joan are collaborating on Yalta Groupies. And my Great-Aunt Harriet has just received a six-figure advance for "Bill" of Particulars: An Intimate Memoir of William Dean Howells.
Geng later divulges that "Bill" lavished on Harriet some characteristically tasteful baubles: "a diamond brooch in the form of five ribbon loops terminating in diamond-set tassels, and an aquamarine-and-diamond tiara with scroll and quillpen motifs separated by single oblong-cut stones mounted on an aquamarine-and-diamond band."1
The cream of this jest, of course, is the impossibility of believing that William Dean Howells would ever have taken a lover: that this icon of Victorian probity, starched in the shirt of his triple-barreled name, could ever have unbuttoned into just plain (and randy!) "Bill." Given Howells's twentieth-century reputation as an archprude, fixated on the smiling (but blind to the leering) aspects of life, it's hard enough to believeevidence of his recurrent paternity notwithstandingthat he had any sex life at all. He could not imaginably have written about it; while he was roundly abused for his defense of Zola, Ibsen, and other purveyors of foreign "smut," Howells never wavered from his own commitment to decent homespun values. His work, he once indignantly insisted to Richard Watson Gilder, "would be always suitable to a family magazine."2
The context for this remark was a negotiation in 1893 about selling some stories to the Century, over which Gilder's editorial will-to-power was expressed in a plan to build "some small loop-hole" into all contracts, even with established
Similar books «The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells»
Look at similar books to The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.
Reviews about «The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells»
Discussion, reviews of the book The Dean of American Letters: the late career of William Dean Howells and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.
