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Show I WILLIAM D. HOWELLS, DEM OF AMERICAN LITERATURE IS DEAD NEW YORK, iStay 11 William Dean Howells.Jrlhe novelist, died hero today at tnq age of 83. Mr. HowellsSreturned a few weeks ago fromTjSavannah, where ho had spent 'the winter. While in the south, h&jwas stricken wjth influenza and never had fully recovered re-covered from itslefefcts. At a dinner given in New York in 191U to do honor to William Dean Ho wells upon his 75 th birthday, William Howard Taft. then president of-' the United States, lauded (3ie guosfc as "tho greatest living American writer and novelist." V Ho was the jJeanjsbC American letters; poet,8 essayist, dramatist and editor, as wellitas a weaver of fiction. ' ; Beginning his, -firgt book; "Poems, of Two Friends," just before the Civil war, Mr. Uowells had completed 71 volumes at tho time of his death, besides acting a3 editor of various publications, crossing, the ocean eighteen times In search of material for his novels, no-vels, and wntlng-esays, criticism and magazine articles. Born in Martinis Ferry, Ohio, in 1S37, he served; hig literary apprenticeship ap-prenticeship as a. compositor, reporter re-porter and editor. on; his father's newspaper. d; "InwardlvJrjpj &$m - the einlhenTi(trt"j his early experiences, "with no wish to be anything- else, unless in a moment of careless offluence 1 might so far forget fnyself as to be a novelist." 1 When 2Z years old he traveled to Boston to make tho acquaintance acquain-tance of Longfellow, Hawthorn, Emerson, Holmes and' Lowell., Though a boy among masters, he became their intimate, learning literary traditions and preserving many of them throughout his long life. At the ago of 2 1 he was ap- I pointed by Presidont Lincoln as United States Consul at Venice. I He combined his consular duties with literary work, and produced -his celebrated book, "Venetian-Life." "Venetian-Life." Four years later, in 1S65, he came to New York with his wife, who was Elinor G. Mead of Vermont Ver-mont and whom ho had married In Paris in 1SC2. For two years ho wrote editorials for tho New York Nation, the Times and the Tribune, and then moved to Bos-, Bos-, ton whero as assistant editor he began his association with tho Atlantic Monthly, succeeding James Russell Lowell as editor hi 1S72. At the age of -14 he retired retir-ed to devote himself to his novels, which ho produced for many years at the rate of two a year. When 50 years old, Mr. Uowells found time to become contributing contribut-ing editor, and later writer for ihe 'Editor's Easy Chair" department depart-ment in Harper's Magazine. For a brief period he acted as editor of the Cosmopolitan. Dr. Howells he had received degrees from Yale, Harvard.' Oxford Ox-ford and Columbia- universities though ho had never attended .iloit ti.oc n Trpnn sLlldent of current events. He avovCed his - belief "in "socialism .'.';-r' x tt'VPamiotjlee;' .hV d?clL'-e ifaTCenie"dy -foVexllTlng conditions lies anywhere, else. But if it is to be a remedy it must como slowly. Violent revolutions do not permanently solvo these problems." On the subject of woman suffrage suf-frage his opinion was decided': "It is one of tho most important developments of this goncration and one of the most hopeful. The men have made such a mess of things that if tho women do not conio to tho rescue I'm sure I don't know what Is to become of us." . |