The subtitle of this estimable biography holds the key to its significance. Howells's close involvement with the Cambridge group (Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emerson and their peers), his lifelong friendship with Henry James and Samuel Clemens, his editorship of the Atlantic Monthly,
his outspoken espousal of social and racial equality, his denunciation of a corrupt judicial system, especially during the Haymarket trials of 1886, and his mentoring of black and female writers, make him an important historical figure. In his day, Howells (1837–1920) was America's most popular novelist and one of its most eminent public figures. His novels were harbingers of the new literary realism, aimed at portraying the commonplace lives of ordinary people, while sagely considering the public issues of his day. Plagued all his life by the need to support his father and siblings, afflicted by the tragedy of a daughter's death and a wife's chronic illness, Howells was prolific as much out of financial need as literary ambition. Goodman and Dawson, both professors of English at the University of Delaware, write with verve and a fine understanding of the way literary figures once commanded the type of adulation we now accord to entertainment celebrities. Wide-ranging and assiduously researched, this biography serves as an illuminating portrait of literary America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 47 b&w photos. (May)
