William Dean Howells

(1837 - 1920)

Often referred to as “the Dean of American Letters,” William Dean Howells was raised in Ohio and later appointed to the U.S. consulate in Venice. In 1866 he took a job as an assistant editor at the Atlantic Monthly, where he also regularly contributed essays and short fiction. His novels include Their Wedding Journey (1872), The Sleeping Car (1882), and The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1920.