William Dean Howells Author & Editor

William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American novelist, critic, and editor. Both in his own novels and in his critical writing, Howells was a champion of realism in American literature. Howells' critical essays on the works of such realistic European writers as Tolstoy, Zola, and Ibsen helped to mold American taste, and he was a literary mentor of Mark Twain, Hamlin Garland, Thorstein Veblen, and Stephen Crane.