Queries

2005

2004

2003

1999-2002

Student Queries

2005

2004

2003

1999-2002

QUESTION: I've read Howells's letters to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., but I've been unable to determine whether or not Holmes's letters to Howells exist and whether or not they've been published anywhere. Does anyone know anything more about this relationship? It seems to have been limited to a short period of correspondence before the Civil war, so both men were quite young.

Stephen H. Wells swells@ccac.edu
6/3/03

QUESTION: I am working on The Son of Royal Langbrith, and am looking in particular at chapter XIV, pp. 83-84 (in the Indiana U. P. edition). Judge Garley makes a reference to a study of a Russian Island (Sakhalin, as the note indicates). The note also mentions a book on Sakhalin by Hawes.
I was wondering if Howells could have had in a mind a book by Chekhov, The Island of Sakhalin, serialized in Russia in 1893 and published in book form in 1895.
The only hitch is :
Could Howells have possibly read it by the time he wrote Royal Langbrith ?
When was it translated into English ? or into French, or into another language which he knew (Spanish, Italian & German) ?
I don't think that he knew Russian, but I may be wrong.

I have read extracts of Chekhov's book. It does not express the theory of remorse expressed by Garley, but I think Howells could very well have reinterpreted & modified the book in order to make his point.
I would be very interested to have you opinion on this and would be very grateful if you could enlighten me.

Thank you,
Guillaume Tanguy.

g.stewart.tanguy@wanadoo.fr

Does anyone have any ideas on where this poem comes from?    amykeyser@hotmail.com
12/6/99

I note on your web site the query from 1999 regarding MacDowell's Sea Pieces. The quote "And who shall sound the mystery of the sea?" is an epigram to the piano piece "From the Depths," the sixth of MacDowell's Sea Pieces. It was written by the composer, who was fond of writing verse to accompany his piano compositions. A recent MacDowell biography erroneously gives the impression that the verse accompanying the Sea Pieces is by Howells. The confusion may have arisen due to the fact that MacDowell did set Howells poem "The Sea." It is the seventh song of MacDowell's Eight Songs, op. 47 from 1893.

Robin Rausch
Music Specialist
Library of Congress
Washington, DC
1/2/08

*************

Unfortunately, I seem to have erased the original question, and I don't know of the poem, but there is a line in The Lady of the Aroostook: 

"The sea is really the only mystery left us, and that will never be explored." (p. 167) 

The passage is ambiguous, I think.  Staniford is putting a shawl around Lydia's shoulders, and is so distracted by her physically that he's almost babbling.  In other words, I don't think that, at least at this point, Howells is taking the observation seriously. 

The best comment in the novel of course is "They were Americans, and they knew how to worship a woman."   (p.95) 
Ellen 

PS. Thanks to my husband for drawing my attention to that comment. 
********************* 
Here is further information on the MacDowell-Howells query.  I have the books at home, so decided to rummage around a bit more. 

Gibson and Arms could not find a copy of the MacDowell-Howells publication, but they have it cited as number 93-K.  It included eight pianoforte pieces, only three of which could they cite, though enough information is given to indicate that MacDowell did some rummaging around himself when he dug up appropriate Howells lyrics. 

Piece number III and piece number VIII are from Poems of Two Friends.  I checked my copy of Poems of Two Friends.  The former is "Folksong" for MacDowell but originally "Gone."  The latter is the poem "Through the Meadow." 

The poem "The Sea" is piece number VII in 93-K.  It is the second part of the poem "Pleasure-Pain" from Howells' Poems from 1873.  Here are the words to part two of that poem, now called "The Sea": 

One sails away to sea, 
  One stands on the shore and cries; 
The ship goes down the world, and the light 
  On the sullen water dies. 

The whispering shell is mute, 
  And after is evil cheer: 
She shall stand on the shore and cry in vain, 
  Many and many a year. 

But the stately, wide-winged ship 
 Lies wrecked on the unknown deep; 
Far under, dead in his coral bed, 
  The lover lies asleep. 

The line cited in the inquiry is not from this poem.  I can't help with the sources of the other five pieces in the MacDowell publication.  Since Gibson-Arms couldn't find a copy of the first publication in 1893, it is probably pretty scarce.  They did see a German translation of the pieces from 1906. 

Gary Culbert 
12/8/99 
**************** 
Another possibility for the source for MacDowell might be Howells' "A Sea-Change" which he describes as a "lyrical farce" and which has a whole raft of poems within it, though it stands as a play and is in his collected plays.  I think it came out around 1888 first in Harper's.  I scanned the text but did not find the cited line, though I didn't look closely. 

Also, Howells has individual poems published during the 80's and 90's in magazines.  I have a letter in which he refers to a poem published around and only in that time frame, so an hour or so with the bound volumes of Harper's, Century, etc., might bring it up as well. 

And here is an oddity of an unusual name cropping up more than once in close    proximity.  Just last month I bought from a dealer in Montana a poor copy of Hamlin Garland's CRUMBLING IDOLS.  When I opened it I found it was inscribed to Edward MacDowell in February 1896.  Garland expresses pleasure in MacDowell's "Americanism."  So this is the volume that MacDowell read and that brought those two people together, a friendship thus created which is discussed at length in the MacDowell chapter in Garland's autobiography. 

I am shocked to see MacDowell's name show up so soon on my screen. 

Gary Culbert 
12/8/99 
************ 
Perhaps the poem is in Poems by Two Friends, which Howells co-wrote with J.J. Piatt.  (I believe the names of the book and the coauthor are accurate. 
I'm working from memory.) 

Greg Stratman     12/6/99 
***************** 
No, I thought it might be, too, but checked this. 
Jim Murphy  12/7/99 
**************** 
The online edition of Poems (1873 edition) lists a poem called "By the Sea," but it doesn't contain the lines quoted here. 

Donna Campbell  12/6/99

My name is Alan King, and I am a graduate student at Middle Tennessee 
State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  I am currently enrolled in a course on research and bibliography methods and am doing a descriptive bibliography on Howell's 1886 printing of A Woman's Reason.  I am struggling so far for information and places to search.  My professor has left things a little vague, and I'm not clear just what I'm supposed to be looking for, but if anyone knows of any essays or articles or books that deal with this novel, or Osgood the publisher, then I would greatly appreciate it. 
Thank you, 
Alan King 

Alan King 
aking12710@aol.com

QUESTION: I am a graduate student of English at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tn. In one of my courses I have been assigned to research a book found in our library's "Special Collections."  The book I have been assigned is Howell's Annie Kilburn.  I'm trying to get a history of the novel, its publishing, and Howells.  Might you have any suggestions for sources?  Anything will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your time. 
Sincerely,      Meagan E. Rikard 
bijou313@yahoo.com

The best place to start to answer these questions is by looking in the index of the biographies on Howells.  Try the ones by Kenneth Lynn and Edwin Cady for starters.  As for Osgood--you might look at Micheal Winship's book on Ticknor and Fields, the name of the firm before it became Osgood.  There's also a book on Houghton, the name of the publishing house that Osgood later became.  I think there's also a biography on Fields, also.  Looking in that index for references to Osgood will help you as well. 

Hope this helps.  Good luck. 

Augusta Rohrbach 
***************** 
 There are two excellent books on James T. Fields: 

Parnassus Corner: A Life of James T. Fields, Publisher to the Victorians by
W. S. Tryon

and  Fields of the Atlantic Monthly by James C. Austin

There is also, as noted a book on the firm of Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

Moreover, there is a biography (quite good) on James R. Osgood himself.

It is The Rise and Fall of James Ripley Osgood by Carl J. Weber (Colby
College Press, 1959).  It is really a very good and readable book.

Gary Culbert
 

EMAILADDRESS: lgbdal@flash.net

QUESTION: My great grandfather, Dwight Bailey, grew up in Jefferson, Ohio during the time William Dean Howells was there and working for his father at the Ashtabula Sentinel.  They were the same age, but Dwight contributed poems and short stories for the paper.  A family history, written by my great aunt, Nellie May Bailey Young, tells of an encounter between the two families, and I quote: "Dwight's seatmate at school was the brother of William Dean Howells.  Their father was the editor of the town paper.  The brother would give Dwight copies of the poems that William Dean had written so that Dwight could write a parody to appear in the same paper." 

I have examined microfilm copies of the Ashtabula Sentinel covering the period from 1853 through 1856, and while I found many poems likely written by William Dean, I found only one that might have been written by Dwight Bailey.  It appeared in the November 24, 1853 issue and was titled as a parody on something.  The complete title and the first part of the poem were illegible on the microfilm, so I can't be specific about them. 

Can anyone comment about this matter?  I am writing a history of my family, and if I can locate one of the parodies written by Dwight Bailey, I will include it together with a bit of background about William Dean Howells. 
 

lchazbo@aol.com 

QUESTION: Where is the following quote found?: "the sincere observer of man will not desire to look upon his heroic or occasional phases, but will seek him in his habitual moods of vacancy and tiresomeness.  To me, at any rate, he is  at such times very precious; and I never perceive him to be as much a man and a brother as when I feel the pressure of his vast, natural, unaffected dullness. 
-----

Guillaume Tanguy

EMAILADDRESS: FRMillard@aol.com 

QUESTION: On Dec. 29th 1876, the Ashtabula bridge collapsed in WDH's hometown where his father continued as editor of the Ashtabula newspaper. During which time WDH was editor of the Atlantic. Do you know if WDH ever wrote about that tragedy? 

3/9/01

EMAILADDRESS: frost@teisprint.com 

QUESTION: Regarding "The Lady of the Aroostook", I have what I believe to be the first Canadian edition, but have been unable to find anything about it. Briefly, it is bound in brown cloth, with stamped gilt lettering and 2 scenes  of Venice on the front board, 324 pp, dark green endpapers.  The publisher is Belfords, Clarke & Co., Toronto.  The copyright page is blank, but there is an 
inscription dated 1879. Any information would be appreciated. 
3/8/01

Gary Culbert 
4/3/01

I am writing a book, "Merry Christmas, America," about how famous authors 
and others have spent Christmas through the years, particularly those 
with Christmas novels and essays themselves. I do have some information 
about Christmas Every Day, but I would like more details about any other 
Christmas works. 

I would like to know how Howells spent Christmas through the years from 
Ohio to Massachusetts and New York. I had some knowledge of a William 
Dean Howells Home in Belmont, Mass. Do you know if there are any historic 
sites for Howells in the U.S. to visit, or does the William Dean Howells 
Society itself have an annual Christmas celebration around his life? 

PLEASE NOTE: I'd rather get all lengthy copy by U.S. mail only, no 
E-mail. If you would like to send me info on the Society, please do so at 
the following address: Patricia Bates, 115 A, Oakmont Drive, Mt. Juliet, 
TN 37122. 

James H Biddle 
Director of Planned Giving 
Capital University 
Columbus OH 43209-2394 
614-236-6496 FAX 614-236-6147 

James L. Murphy 
Ohio State University Libraries 

I am a second year Ph.D. student in American Literature.  My question is did Howells write a  review, a journal entry, etc. on Herman Melville.  I am interested to read what Howells had written.  Daniel Pawiloda

You can also check Howells's "Editor's Study" columns, Criticism and Fiction, and other volumes of Howells's criticism.

I am an Italian translator and teacher of translation theory here in Italy. I am currently translating Howells' The Shadow of a Dream for an important Italian publishing house. The translation is being conducted on the 1970 Banta edition. 
There is one point of the text which, despite my accurate consultation of various sources, I haven't been able to understand, and I was wondering whether you might kindly help me. 

In Part III - NEVIL - there is this passage: 

"Shocking! shocking!" said my friend, shaking her head, which had grown charmingly gray, in a marquise manner, and evincing her delight in the boldness with which I handled the matter. 

The problem is:  "IN A MARQUISE MANNER" which I provisionally translated as "a la marquise" (in italics). 

Thank you for your kind attention. 
Giuliana Schiavi

I have read your question. I am afraid I have nothing more to suggest than 
what you have said. I have not re-read The Shadow of a Dream recently (and unfortunately I do not have the Bloomington edition). Anyway, I suppose "marquise" always has, in Howells's mind, a negative, probably ironical connotation, given his aversion for aristocracy in general. But of course it is implicit and mustn"t be made explicit. 
Your suggestion of "a la marquise"  sounds fine to me, and concise, which  is needed. However, I do not know the expression (I'm French). Does the expression exist? That was my question. Is it one of those French expressions that is used only in non-French languages? 
Anyway, good luck with your translation. 
The thought of translating Howells has already occurred to me! I really would like to give it some thought one day (translating WDH into French). But for the moment I'm writing a PhD on him. 

Yours sincerely, 

Guillaume Tanguy 

********* 
I think that M. Tanguy is right: it may be one of those French expressions that is used only in non-French languages. Oscar Wilde uses this phrase in An Ideal Husband, as does Adelaide Stuart Dimitry's War-Time Sketches: Historical and Otherwise. It seems to have been a common phrase to describe a particular look of the hair or hairstyle (perhaps gray at the temples?) worn by women no longer young.  A history of hairdressing or of costumes might provide a good definition. --D. Campbell

Thank you so much for your time--your website is wonderful! 

  Jonathan Daigle 
  University of Wisconsin-Madison, jrdaigle@facstaff.wisc.edu 
 

QUESTION: I am trying to track down a lecture that John Updike gave on WDH a few years ago--I am sketchy on the details other than the lecture was published as both a pamphlet and in a periodical. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

--Vicki Keller, kellervl@mail.utexas.edu

QUESTION: I am trying to track down the occasion of a lecture that John Updike gave on William Dean Howells. It would have been within the last 5-10 years. Are you aware of any lectures that Updike has given on Howells? --Abby Haywood 

Best, Polly Howells Werthman 

[material omitted] I mentioned a New Yorker piece by Updike on 
H [in an essay on Howells and Updike] falling within the time period the questioner refers to. 

[material omitted]
oggel.htm

Hope this helps. 

Terry Oggel

John Updike's "Howells as Anti-novelist" was printed in a limited 
edition of 150 copies by the William Dean Howells Memorial Committee 
in 1987. I'll quote the pertinent portion of Updike's "Author's Note" 
prefatory to the essay: 

"This talk was given at the invitation of the William Dean Howells 
Memorial Committee on May 1, 1987, in Emerson Lecture Hall, at 
Harvard, as part of a two-day celebration of the 150th anniversary of 
Howells' birth. It was then published, somewhat amplifed and altered, 
in _The New Yorker_ of July 13, 1987. This edition basically 
reproduces the original version, addressed to an audience of 
undergraduates and Howells experts." 

David Nordloh

Re. question #2: Updike lectured on Howells at Harvard, among other other places (I believe). That lecture, which compares Howells to James, and declares Howells the "winner" in terms of his impact on the development of realistic fiction, was later published in The New Yorker (though Idon't have the date handy). 

best, 

tim spears 

****

Here is the reference of a lecture that Updike gave on Howells: "Howells as anti-novelist" Kittery Point, Maine, the W.D. Howells Committee, 1987.

Updike also wrote a Preface to one of Howells's novels, Indian Summer. The preface was written in 1990. Best, Guillaume Tanguy (France)

QUESTION: For a book on the history of dining out in new York, I would be interested to know of anything that Howells might have written on Manhattan restaurants, especially Pfaff's. A stray comment, journal entry, or the like would be valuable. William Grimes grimes@nytimes.com 

"[The first two books] may yet mark a new era in fiction...they carry so deep a sense of truthfulness to the reader, they are so far in temper from any sort of mere artistry, they are so simply and nobly serious." This was in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1886.

I was wondering if anyone knows of any other references to Rutherford in 
Howells' work.

Thanks for any help

David French

Our book club has decided to "do" a work by William Dean Howells and I seek an informed opinion as to which of his many works we should
choose. I realize that "The Rise of Silas Lapham"
and "A Modern Instance" are perhaps his best known works but are there some other works less known? The book must be available in paperback. 

*****

A VERY belated thank you for your efforts concerning works by William Dean Howells for possible use by our Book Club.
In addition to your suggestions of "Indian Summer" and "A Hazard of New Fortunes". Lance Rubin suggested "A Traveler from Altruria" and "Hazard" and Gregory Stratman suggested "The Landlord at Lion's Head", "Dr. Breen's Practice" and "Annie Kilburn". Samuel Ludwig also responded but, in thanking him earlier today, I deleted his suggestion. (I am a computer Luddite). Thank you, again, for your efforts. Ted Sheehan

Mark Harris

For anyone, but especially such a group as this, I'd suggest Indian Summer, composed before Silas Lapham but published after due to problems with the supposed publisher, James Osgood & Co. It's a good novel, and underrated.

The Lib of America put out an edition of just that one novel in 1990 with an introduction by John Updike. That introduction is probably the reason that LoA put out a single novel--it doesn't usually do that). Don't know if this edition is still in print. Don't know if the novel is available in
another paperback.

After that, Hazard of New Fortunes--for a different Howells, a somewhat disillusioned Howells. As New York differed from Boston in the final decades of the 19th c. Cosmopolitan, full of immigrants; bustling, even frenetic, and hectic. The novel is panoramic, not as neatly controlled as his earlier ones, and at times borders on a loss of narrative
control. This is available in paperback, last I checked.

Terry Oggel

  1.. the reference of a letter that Howells wrote to James in which he says :

  " I am comparatively a dead cult with my statues cut down and the grass growing over me in the pale moonlight. "

  The letter is quoted by K.S. Lynn in WDH, An American Life (p. 13) and probably by Michael Anesko (Letters, Fictions, Lives).

  The letter is probably in The Life in Letters of WDH, which I have xeroxed incompletely, which is why I haven't found it, or in the Selected Letters of WDH, which I haven't got.

  2.. I am also looking for Howells's Preface of A Hazard of New Fortunes.
  3.. Three of Howell's radical essays :

  'Equality as the Basis of Good Society' (November 1894),
  'The Nature of Liberty' (December 1895),
  and 'Who are our Brethren ?' (April 1896)

  These essays were published either in Forum, or Century or North American Review.

  4.. The following articles on WDH, which I haven't been able to obtain :

PORTE, Joel, " Manners, Morals and Mince Pie : Howells's America Revisited ", Prospects, 10 (1985), pp. 443-460

KLINKOWITZ, Jerome : " Ethic and Aesthetic : the Basil and Isabel March Stories of WDH ", Modern Fiction Studies, 16 (Autumn 1970), pp. 303-322.

Thank you

Guillaume Tanguy (France)
 

The letter is indeed in Life in Letters, as referenced by Lynn.  It is
volume 2, pages 349-50.

Here is the letter in total:

York Harbor, Maine,
June 29, 1915

Dear James:
   If I wait to write you a fit letter, I shall write none; so here goes a
faint response to the kind mentions you make of me in your "Mr. and Mrs. J.
T. Fields."  I read it aloud to Pilla for our common pleasure; she knew
"her" if not him and last summer we passed a night at her house in
Manchester.  Your paper relumed so many old faded fires, and cast, most
precious of all, a tender light on your own youth, which used to abash me by
its worldly maturity.  I remember Fields bringing me a story of yours with
the question of whether he should take it, and my saying, "Yes, and as many
more by the same hand as you can get."  That is what young assistant editors
should be saying now; but are they?  A change has passed upon things, we
can't deny it; I could not "serialize" a story of mine now in any American
magazines, thousands of them as they are.
    We are much at war for you over here; but we do not seem to help much;
we are almost as bad as Russians who don't fight at all as they write.  All
York Harbor is for the Allies, beginning with Mrs. Bell, who lives two doors
away from me.  She still is the brightest of octogenarians.  Perry was down
to see me before dooming himself to Hancock.  He is your most pathetically
constant adorer, and on the whole I should say your worship was speading
among us.  I am comparatively a dead cult with my statues cut down and the
grass growing over them in the moonlight.
    There is now a great wash of young poetry on these shores, some of it
not so bad.  Pilla and I spend our days gardening by day and reading by
night.  We have a deliciously large, cool house -- no such oven as we baked
you in at Kittery Point ten years ago.  I am doing my miserable memoirs,
which really make me sick; but I promised to do them.  I end them with going
off to Venice. It is something awful and I wonder the more at the grace and
ease with which you carry off your past in those two blithe books of yours.
Your (sic) affectionately,
W. D. Howells

Gary Culbertson

yours sincerely,
anita wolfartsberger, mailto:awolfartsberger@yahoo.de
 12/11/02

"A Word for the Dead" can be reconstructed easily from two books on WDH.  

The bulk of the letter, lacking the opening paragraph is included in Cady's volume, The Realist at War, on pages 73-77.  The first paragraph is in William Alexander's book William Dean Howells: The Realist as Humanist (Burt Franklin & Company, 1981) on page 89.

The Cady should be readily available, and it is the most of the lengthy letter.  If you would like a transcription of the first paragraph from
Alexander, let me know.

Gary Culbert
gculbert@echs.bellevue.wa.us

QUESTION: I have been informed by the Globusz Publisher that the article "American Literary Centres" was written by William Dean Howells.

I am researching information on the Dump-Dumph family genealogy. Within the body of the aforementioned text is the following line:

"...and Mr. George Ade and Mr. Peter Dump in their satires form with those named a group not to be matched elsewhere in the country...."

Does anyone know where I can find copies of Mr. Peter Dump's satires and/or further information about him?

This Mr. Peter Dump may be my great-great-uncle.

Sincerely,
Mr. Harold L. Dump, pjhh@iland.net

1-23-03

Howells, Owen Wister, and Cowboys

QUESTION: I wondered if someone might be able to direct me to a book that treats (or mentions) an exchange between William Dean Howells and Owen Wister. The exchange involves Howells cautioning Wister not to pursue writing a story referring to cowboys' sexual practice. Thank you.
Karen Chandler

kmchan01@louisville.edu
3/10/2003

I would like to know if Howells wrote the unsigned "Recent Literature" columns that appeared in ATLANTIC MONTHLY. Specifically, I am interested in the reviews published in 1874. I suspect that he did not write these, but am not sure how to find out.

Thank you for your time,

Jonathan Daigle, dissertator
University of Wisconsin-Madison
jrdaigle@wisc.edu

Howells's Address on West 9th St.

COMMENTS: In 1891 when W.D. Howells first moved to NYC, he lived on West 9th Street, then moved to 17th Street. Please give me his address on Ninth Street. I am doing an article on important authors who lived on West 9th Street. Thank you.

nonstopny@aol.com
3/28/03

Howells' address in the late 1880's in NYC was

46 West 9th St.

That is how he was heading his letters by 1888 as cited in Life in Letters.... Howells move to NYC from Boston was considerably before 1891, I believe.

Best wishes,
Gary Culbert gculbert@echs.bellevue.wa.us

Expression used by Howells

I am looking for the origin of an expression used either by Howells or by a critic in relation to Howells. I think that it also features in the title of a critical book on Howells. This expression is :

" (there has always been) a little ideality in my reality ".

What I would like to find is the origin of this expression linking IDEALITY and REALITY.

Thank you ! Guillaume Tanguy, France,

e-g.stewart.tanguy@wanadoo.fr

4/27/03