|
|
Howells's "Editor's Study" Columns from Harper's
Image files from Cornell's Making of America Site
Because of a change in the link addresses, this links on this
page now refer to the "Editor's Study" column for each month
rather than to individual pieces. Since these are image
files, they will take a little longer to load than text or HTML
files. The columns are also available in .pdf (Adobe Acrobat),
which is best for printing, and uncorrected text formats. The
titles and page numbers given below are those listed in the index
for each volume of Harper's.
For a complete print version of the "Editor's
Study" columns, see James W. Simpson's Editor's Study by William
Dean Howells (Troy, N. Y.: Whitston Press, 1983.)
To see what became of the "Editor's Study" after Howells left it, read
the columns by Charles
Dudley Warner. |
The volume numbers appear in parentheses.
"Dostoyevsky
and the More Smiling Aspects of Life." Harper's 73 (1886):
641-42.
"False
and Truthful Fiction." Harper's 74 (1887): 824-26
"Standards
and Taste in Fiction." Harper's 75 (1887): 639-40.
"The
Grasshopper: The Simple, the Natural, the Honest in Art." Harper's 76
(1887): 153-55.
(annotations by Erin Cochran)
January
1886
January 1886:
“An Invitation to the Reader,” p. 321
“Some Recent Fiction,” p. 321-323 (Across the Chasm, Mary Murfree’s Prophet
of Snowy Mountain, Weir Mitchell’s In War Time, Picard’s A
Mission Flower and A Matter of Taste, Belle C. Greene’s A
New England Conscience, Edgar Fawcett’s Social Silhouettes)
“Literary Centres,” p. 324
“A Word about Americanisms,” p. 324 (Lowell and American slang in
literature)
“Some Recent Illustrated Books” p. 325-326 ( Holmes’ poem "The
Leaf," Whittier’s Poems of Nature, Jean Ingelow’s Favorite
Poems, George Boughton’s Sketching Rambles in Holland, Howells’s Tuscan
Cities, Hamerton’s Old and Present Times, D’Amici’s Spain
and the Spaniards, Howard Pyle’s Pepper and Salt)
February 1886:
“A Fairytale of Biography,” p. 481 (Life and Correspondence of
Louis Agassiz, Agassiz’s accomplishments)
“Souvenirs of a Diplomat,” p. 482 (M. de Bacourt, experiences in
America)
“Americanisms in Some Recent English Novels,” p. 484 (Robert Buchanan,
Black’s White Heather, Grant Allen’s Babylon)
“Two Remarkable Examples of Sincerity in Fiction,” p. 485 (William
Hale White’s Autobiography of Mark Rutherford, and Mark Rutherford’s Deliverance)
“Balzac’s Realism,” p. 486 (Balzac’s Le Pere Goriot, Cesar
Birotteau, and Eugenie Grandet)
“Our Critics,” p. 486 (Critique of critics)
February
1886
March
1886
April
1886
May
1886
June
1886
Volume 73
(annotations by Ashley Miller and Regan Lane; includes books mentioned but
not reviewed)
List of books referred to in Volume 73.
July
1886
(314)Mrs. Peixada (By Mr. Sidney Luska)
(314)Theatrical Conditions (Regarding Luska’s Mrs. Peixada)
(315)Our Comic Dramatist (Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Hoyt’s Rag Baby,
Mr. Edward Harringtom’s “Dan’s Tribulations,” “Leather
Patch”)
(317)Mr. Howard's Play (Bronson Howard's, "One of our Girls")
(317)The larger Stage (Wolcott Balestier, "A Victorious Defeat")
(318)Mr. Posnett's Comparative Literature (Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett,
T.S. Perry, "English Literature in the Eighteenth Century," and "From
Opitz to Lessing")
August
1886
(475)I. A consoling Reflection for the neglected Author
(476)II. Some notable Books without Literary Consciousness: "General
Grant's Memoirs"; Lieutenant Greely's "Three Years of Arctic
Service" (Volume 2, Pilgrim’s Progress, De Foe)
(477)III. Miss Woolson's new Novel (East Angels)
(478)III."Constance of Acadia" (Author Unknown)
(478)IV. Two recent Historical Books - Boyesen's "Story of
Norway," and Royce's "History of California" (found in Mr.
Scudders "American Commonwealth Series")
September
1886
(639)I. Dostoievsky's latest Novel ("Le Crime et le Châtiment")(Tourgéneff
and Tolsoï, Dostoïevsky’s Le Crime et le Châtiment, Les
Humiliés et Offensés)
(641)II. The Story of Dostoievsky's Life in the "Revue des
Deux Mondes" (M. Eugene Melchoir de Vogue)(Revue des Deux Mondes,
Poor People, The Crime and the Punishment, The Humiliated and the Wronged,
The Bedeviled)
(641)III. Why American Fiction should be cheerful (The Smiling Aspects
of Life, Hawthorne)
(642)IV. Vernon Lee's "Baldwin"
(642)V. The Memoir of Mrs. Edward Livingston (by her great-niece,
Mrs. Louise Livingston Hunt, Prue and I)
(643)VI. General Badeau's "Aristocracy in England"
October
1886
(801)I. The Bible of All Lovers, (Compiled by Professor Marco Antonio
Canini)(Compiled by Canini, Il Libro dell’ Amore, Dizionario Etimologico
di Vocaboli Italiani, Dizionario Etimologico di Vocaboli Italian, Amore e
Dolore, Vingt Ans d’Exil, Solomon, King of Jerusalem, Soliman II the
Magnificent, Sultan of the Turks and The Grand Mogul Shah Alam II, Paur’ Zizi,
Bjornson, Tegnér, Oehlenschläger, Burns, Moore, Shelley, Byron,
Tennyson, Browning, Barrett-Browning, G. Dante Rossetti, Swinburne, Hugo,
Whitman, Longfellow, Lowell)
(803)II. Representative Poems of Living Poets (Jeannette L. Gilder)
(by Miss L. Gilder, introduction by Mr. G.P. Lathrop, Tennyson, Aldrich’s “Identity,” “Sleep,” Mrs.
Akers Allen’s “Among the Laurels,” Mr. Bunner’s “The
Way to Arcady,” Mr. Cranch’s “Bobolinks,” Mr. Dobson’s “A
Dead Letter, “Ballad of Prose and Rhyme,” Dr. Holmes’ “The
Chambered Nautilus,” “The Last Leaf,” “Old Ironsides,” “The
Voiceless,” “Mr. Lowell’s “Commemoration Ode,” “A
Parable,” “The Present Crisis,” “What is so rare
as a day in June?” “The Courtin’,” Mr. Lathrop’s “The
Singing Wire,” Mrs. Piatt, Mr. Stoddard’s ode to “Abraham
Lincoln,” “The Flight of Youth,” Mr. Maurice Thomson’s “Atlanta,” “A
Prelude,” “Wild Honey,” Mr. Trowbridge’s “The
Vagabonds,” Mr. Whittier’s “My Playmate”)
(804)The Decadence of Poetry (G.P. Lathrop)(Mr. Lathrop, Mademoiselle
Bentzon, review of Mr. Stedman’s American Poets in Revue de Deux Mondes,
Whitman)
(804-5) III. (Introductory essay on poetry by G.P. Lathrop)
(805)IV. A Terrible Criticism (G.P. Lathrop on Shakespeare)(Mr.
Lathrop, Stedman, Posnett, Perry, Shakespeare)
November
1886
(962)I. Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge,"(“Far
from the Madding Crowd,” “Under the Greenwood Tree,” “A
Pair of Blue Eyes”)
(962)II. Some recent Spanish Fiction: Valera's "Pepita Ximenez" and "Dona
Luz"III. Valdo's :Marta y Maria" and "Jose,"(Valera’s
Poetry and the Art of the Arabs in Spain and Sicily, Don Armando Palacio
Valdés’ “Riverita”) (964)Verga's "I Malavoglia"
(964)"Misfits and Remnants" (L.D. Ventura and S. Shovitch)(M.
Ernest Dupuy, "Les Grands Maitres dela Litterature Russe," M. Eugene-Melchior
de Vogue, "La Roman Russe" (Messieurs LD Ventura and S. Shovich,
Dupuy, Les Grands Maîtres de la Littérature Russe and La
Roman Russe, by M. Eugène-Melchoir de Vogüé, Gogol,
Tourguénief, Tolstoï, Dostoïevsky)
(965)IV. Two notable Biographies: Life of Judge Richard Reid; V.
Autobiography of Cassius M. Clay,
(by Wife Elizabeth Jamseon Reid)
Volume 74
December
1886
January
1887
February
1887
March
1887
April
1887
May
1887
Volume
75
June
1887
July
1887
August
1887
September
1887
October
1887
November
1887
December
1887
January
1888
February
1888
March
1888
April
1888
May
1888
June
1888
July
1888
August
1888
September
1888
October
1888
November
1888
December
1888
January
1889
February
1889
March
1889
April
1889
May
1889
June
1889
July
1889
August
1889
September
1889
October
1889
November
1889
December
1889
"Thanksgiving and Christmas" p. 155
January
1890
"Comity in International Criticism," p. 318
"Mark Twain's New Wonder Book," p. 319 (on A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's Court)
"Mr. Morse's Franklin and Franklin's Humor," p. 321
"An American School Reader," p. 322.
"A Curious Fact Concerning All the Arts," p. 322
February
1890
"Smaller, if not fewer, Books," p. 480 (Boswell's Life of Johnson)
"Some Excellent English Essays," p. 481 (E. Hughes's Some Aspects
of Humanity)
"The Odd Number," p. 482
"A Very Powerful Novel," p. 482 (G. P. Lathrop's Would You Kill Him?)
"A Very Suggestive Novel," p. 483 (Charles Dudley Warner's A Little
Journey in the World)
"A New Sort of Political Economist," p. 484 (Richard T. Ely's Social
Aspects of Christianity)
"A Pleasant Study of Literature," p. 485
March
1890
"A Diplomat Comes to Judgment of the Literary Life," p. 642 (E. J. Phelps's The
Age of Words)
"His Charge to the Jury," p. 643
"Some Modest Question of the Righteousness of his Sentence," p. 644
"Why the Prisoner at the Bar thinks it ought not to have been pushed
upon him," p. 645
"The Prisoner's Self-defense, Justification, and Glorification," p.
646
"Some Contumely for Dead Dignities," p. 647
"The Conclusion of the Whole Matter," p. 647
April
1890
"A New Interpretation," p. 805 (Anonymous God in His World)
"Tennyson's Latest Word," p. 806 (Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Demeter and
Persephone")
"Browning's Last," p. 807 (Robert Browning's "Asolando")
"A Humorist from Kansas," p. 807 (Poetry by one named "Ironquill")
"A Poet from New Zealand," p. 809 (J. Glenny Wilson's Themes and
Variations)
"In the Garden of Dreams," p. 809
"Between whiles," p. 809
"Wyndham Towers," p. 809 (Mr. Aldrich's "Wyndham Towers")
May
1890
"Among Australian Cannibals," p. 966 (Carl Lumholtz's Autobiography)
"The Anglo-Saxon Strain of Homicide in Mississippi," p. 967 (Reuben
Davis's Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians)
"A Gilbert and Sullivan Plot in American History," p. 968 (Henry Adams's
first volume of the history of the United States)
"Bigelow's Life of Bryant," p. 969 (John Bigelow's contribution to Warner's "American
Men of Letters" series)
June
1890
"The Dramatic Critics and the Dramatists," p. 152
"The Tripartite Distrust," p. 153
"Mr. Herne's Play, Drifting Apart," p. 154 (James A. Herne's Drifting
Apart)
"Mr. Howard's Shenandoah," p. 155 (Mr. Howard's Shenandoah)
"The Senator," p. 155 (Lloyd and Rosenfeld's The Senator)
"A Made-up Play --- A Play that makes American Plays seem like Playthings," p.
156
July
1890
"A Field-Day with Correspondents," p. 314
"Humble-Pie for the Study," p. 314
"Humbler Pie," p. 315
"Not quite so humble, but still humble enough," p. 315
"The Reward of Virtue," p. 316
"Mr. Lowell on Idealism," p. 317
August
1890
"Canon Farrar's Excellent Paper on Criticism," p. 476 (Canon Farrar's
article in the May, 1890 Fortune)
"The Effect of Bad Criticism Not so Mischievous as its Intent," p. 476
"Why Criticism Cannot Legislate for Literature," p. 477
"The Abuse of Anonymity in all Branches of Journalism," p 478
"Its Temptations," p. 478
"Its Disastrous Consequences," p. 479
"The Ideal Critic," p. 479
"Why the Anonymous Critic Should Cease to Be," p. 480
September
1890
"Mr. John Hay's Volume of Poetry," p. 638 (Poems by John Hay)
"The Tragic Muse of Mr. Henry James," p. 639
"The Life of Carmen Sylva," p. 641
"The Autobiography of a Japanese Boy," p. 641
"Balzac's Sons of the Soil," p. 642 (Honore de Balzac's Sons of the
Soil)
"Mr. Lafcadio Hearn's Youma" p. 642
"Mr. George Pellew's Life of Jay," p. 642 (George Pellew's Life of
John Jay from the "American Men of Letters" Series)
October
1890
"Mr. Harold Frederic's Novels," p. 800 (Harold Frederic's In the
Valley, Seth's Brother's Wife, and The Lawton Girl)
"Mr. Kipling's Work, en passant," p. 800
"The American Version of an Italian Masterpiece," p. 801
"Tolstoi's Mistake," p. 802
"Mr. Henley's Criticism," p. 803
"Miss White's Miss Brooks," p. 804
November
1890
"Mr. Isaac Taylor's Origin of the Aryans," p. 962 (Isaac Taylor's Origin
of the Aryans)
"An American's Anticipation of his Theory," p. 963
"Woman's Place in a Prehistoric Society," p. 964
"Reasons for Rejecting the Old Philological Theory of the Aryan Invasions," p.
964
"Concluding Reflections," p. 966
December
1890
"A Christmas Dream," p. 152
"The Ideal Commonwealth here at last: Festive Processions," p.
152
"Dramatic Critics and Playwrights, Literary Critics and Creative Authors," p.
153
"The Last of the Romanticists and the Anonymous Critic," p. 153
"Foreign Authors and Perpetual Copyright," p. 156
January
1891
"Following the Guidon," p. 316 (Elizabeth B. Custer's Following
the Guidon)
"Campaigning with Crook," p. 316 (Elizabeth B. Custer's Campaigning
with Crook)
"The Spirit of the Army as in these and in Mr. Kipling's Books," p.
318 (Rudyard Kipling's Departmental Ditties and Other Verses)
"The Strange Poems of Emily Dickinson," p. 318 (Poetry by Dickinson
edited by Mabel Loomis Todd)
"The Difficulty of Keeping Enemies," p. 320 (James McNeill Whistler's The
Gentle Art of Making Enemies)
February
1891
"The Latest if not the Last Word about Lincoln," p. 478 (Nicolay and
Hay's biography of Abraham Lincoln)
"His National Proportions," p. 480
"The Good Literature of Lincoln and his Contemporaries," p. 481
"Messrs. Nicolay and Hay's Method in History," p. 481
"Two Notable Novels," p. 482 (Bjornstjerne Bjornson's In God's Ways and
Valdes's Espuma)
March
1891
"In the Footprints of Charles Lamb," p. 640 (B.E. Martin's In the
Footprints of Charles Lamb)
"Walter Scott's Journal," p. 640 (Walter Scott's Journal edited
by David Douglas)
"Society as I have Found it," p. 642 (Ward McAllister's Society as
I have Found It)
"Joseph Jefferson's Autobiography," p. 642 (Joseph Jefferson's Autobiography)
"Curiosities of the American Stage," p. 643 (Laurence Hutton's Curiosities
of the American Stage)
"A Sketch of Chester Harding," p. 644 (Chester Harding's Autobiography A
Sketch of Chester Harding, Artist, drawn by his own Hand)
"London Letters," p. 644 (G.W. Smalley's London Letters)
April
1891
"An American History of Greek Letters," p. 802 (T.S. Perry's History
of Greek Literature)
"Scope and Influence of that Literature," p. 802
"Modern Heirs of Alexandria rather than Athens," p. 803
"The American Proficiency in one of the Fine Arts," p. 804 (Comparing
Sarah Orne Jewett's Strangers and Wayfarers and Maupassant's Tales
by Francois Coppee)
"A Spanish Woman's Mood," p. 805 (Emilia Pardo Bazan Morrina)
"The Realistic View of Menials," p. 806
May
1891
"The Possibility of an Exhibition of Poetry," p. 964
"Lyrics for a Lute," p. 964 (Frank Dempster Sherman's Lyrics for
a Lute)
"The Inverted Torch," p. 965 (Edith M. Thomas's The Inverted Torch)
"Vagabond Verses," p. 965 (Henry Austin's Vagabond Verses)
"Rhymes of Childhood," p. 965 (James Whitcomb Riley's Rhymes of Childhood)
"A Little Book of Western Verse," p. 966 (Eugene Field)
"The Sister's Tragedy," p. 966 (Aldrich's The Sister's Tragedy and
Other Poems)
"Rose Brake," p. 967 (Dankse Dandridge Rose Brake)
"The Grave of Wordsworth and other Poems," p. 967 (William Watson's Wordsworth's
Grave and Other Poems)
Volume 83
June
1891
July
1891
August
1891
September
1891
October
1891
November
1891
December
1891
"Another Christmas Dream of Altruria," p. 153
"Interview with the Christmas Boy," p. 153
"Strange State of Things in Altruria concerning literary Property," p.
154
"Tenure of Literary Property made the Norm throughout Altruria," p.
155
"Popularity of this Solution," p. 156
January
1892
"A Handful of Poets," p. 315 (Orrin Cedesman, Meredith Nelson, William
Wilfred Campbell, Denton J. Snider, and J.P. Irving)
"Is the Poetic Centre shifting?" p. 317
"Possible Effects of Western Competition in Verse," p. 318 (Poetry by
Madison Cawein, Gertrude Hall, Lilla Cabot Perry, and William Sharp)
"Unity of all Times and Places in Poetry," p. 319
"A Temptation to Prophesy resisted," p. 320
February
1892
"The Philadelphia Flavor in Fiction," p. 478 (Thomas A. Janvier's The
Uncle of an Angel, and other Stories)
"The Work of a new Talent," p. 478 (George A. Hibbard's Iduna, and
other Stories)
"The New Work of an Established Fame," p. 479 (Rose Terry Cooke's Huckleberries)
"An Indispensable Novelty," p. 479 (W.M. Griswold's Descriptive
Lists of Novels)
"Some Steps toward a Sane Spelling," p. 480 (Complimenting Mr. Griswold
on his exceptional spelling)
"An Attempt at Reparation," p. 480 (Thomas L. Harris's Life of Laurence
Oliphant)
"The Value of Dreams," p. 481 (Du Maurier's Peter Ibbetson)
"The Latest Version of the Divine Comedy," p. 481 (Dr. Charles Eliot
Norton's prose version of the Divine Comedy)
March
1892
"Magazine Unity and Departmental Variety," p. 640 (Farewell writings
by Howells)
"An Attempt to Impart the Open Secret of the Easy Chair's Influence," p.
641
"The Study's Failure to Profit by a Good Example," p. 642
"The Future of the Study," p. 643
Links originally compiled and annotated by Matthew Colley, Gonzaga University.
Link updates by site author. |
