But it must not be inferred that his novels and other
literary work have been by any means exclusively concerned
with the reconstruction of the social order.
He has indeed experimented with this theme, but he
has always had a sane interest in life as he sees
it, and with the increasing scope of his observation
he has drawn his figures from a larger world, which
includes indeed the world in which he first began to
find his characters and their action.
Not long after retiring from the Atlantic he
went to live in New York, and varied his American
experience with frequent travels and continued residence
in Europe. For a while he maintained a department
in Harper’s Magazine, where he gave expression
to his views on literature and the dramatic art, and
for a short period returned to the editorial life
in conducting The Cosmopolitan; later he entered
also the field of lecturing, and thus further extended
the range of his observation. For many years,
Mr. Howells was the writer of “Editor’s
Easy Chair” in Harper’s Magazine.
In 1909 he was made president of the American Academy
of Arts and Letters. Mr. Howells’s death
occurred May 11, 1920.
This in fine is the most summary statement of his
career in literature,—that he has been
a keen and sympathetic observer of life, and has caught
its character, not like a reporter going about with
a kodak and snapping it aimlessly at any conspicuous
object, but like an alert artist who goes back to
his studio after a walk and sets down his comments
on what he has seen in quick, accurate sketches, now
and then resolving numberless undrawn sketches into
some one comprehensive and beautiful picture.
THE SEQUENCE OF MR. HOWELLS’S BOOKS.
Mr. Howells is the author of nearly seventy books,
from which the following are selected as best representing
his work in various fields and at various periods.
Venetian Life. Travel and description. 1867.
Their Wedding Journey. Novel. 1871.
Italian Journeys. Travel and description. 1872.
Suburban Sketches. 1872.
Poems. 1873 and 1895.
A Chance Acquaintance. Novel. 1873.
A Foregone Conclusion. Novel. 1874.
A Counterfeit Presentment. Comedy. 1877.
The Lady of the Aroostook. Novel. 1879.
The Undiscovered Country. Novel. 1880.
A Fearful Responsibility, and Other Stories. 1881.
A Modern Instance. Novel. 1881.
The Rise of Silas Lapham. Novel. 1884.
Tuscan Cities. Travel and description. 1885.
April Hopes. Novel. 1887.
A Hazard of New Fortunes. Novel. 1889.
The Sleeping Car, and Other Farces. 1889.
A Boy’s Town. Reminiscences. 1890.
Criticism and Fiction. Essays. 1891.
My Literary Passions. Essays. 1895.
Stops of Various Quills. Poems. 1895.
Copyrights
A Modern Instance from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
