Born into an anti-slavery family of eight children, Howells aided his family by setting type in his journalist father's printing office. Though he never finished high school, Howells would later receive honorary degrees from six universities as well as the offer of Ivy League professorships. Howells published frequently in the Saturday Press (Belasco 252) and was one of the “foremost writers of fiction” in novel form. Percy Holmes Boynton puts him in the company of such writers as Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Walt Whitman in being “scrupulously careful writers” (49). By the time he visited Pfaff's, his book of poetry Poems of Two Friends (1860) had been published and he had made the acquaintance of Boston literary society, including Robert Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Howells idolized Pfaff’s while in Ohio, finally venturing to see it in person in 1860 during a visit to the Saturday Press (Allen 230-31). He characterized Pfaff's as a "colony of ideas, of theories" which gained "violent expression, not to say explosion, against all existing forms of respectability" in the Saturday Press ("First Impressions" 63). Upon visiting Pfaff's "where I was given to know that the Bohemian nights were smoked and quaffed away," Howells, who neither smoked nor drank, was limited to eating a "German pancake" (which he proclaimed good) and listening to the talk which he states, "was not so good talk as I had heard in Boston" (64). He met writers for the Press as well as Vanity Fair and "artists who drew for the illustrated periodicals," probably Vedder and Eytinge (63). Reporting that he left before midnight, Howells relates his disappointment and his vain hopes to have seen "worse things" (64). The Pfaffians, for their part, viewed Howells as part of the “Boston Bourgeois” (Levin 58), but respected him as a member of that literary community (Parry 106). Described as "part of the more conservative literary element" who were critical of the Bohemians, Howells only visited Pfaff’s once or twice (Ford 1).
On his way out the door, however, he was introduced to Walt Whitman, which he wrote was "the chief fact of my experience...I remember how he leaned back in his chair, and reached out his great hand to me, as if he were going to give it me for good and all... [He had] gentle eyes that looked most kindly into mine, and seemed to wish the liking which I instantly gave him, though we hardly passed a word, and our acquaintance was summed up in that glance and the grasp of his mighty fist upon my hand" ("First Impressions" 65). Although Howells wrote of Bohemia, most notably in A Modern Issue and The Coast of Bohemia (1893), there is not enough to suggest that these works are connected to his experiences at Pfaff’s. Among his other literary acquaintances, he had a lifelong friendship with Mark Twain, writing a poem titled “My Mark Twain,” and was also an intimate of Thomas Bailey Aldrich (Boynton 393).
Howells would later give the "first important review" of Drum Taps in the Round Table, November 11,1865, having become one of the major tastemakers in the U.S. in the postwar period (Allen 359-360). He traveled around Europe for a brief stint, where he planned to visit London, Paris, and Holland before returning to New York. Barry reports, "Though he [Howells] has justly criticised many things here, he enjoys living in New York and finds it a good place to work in" (184). After he published a biography of Abraham Lincoln, the President sent Howells to the Venetian consulate where he remained for four years. He returned to America in 1865 and joined the staffs of the New York Nation, the Atlantic Monthly, and Harper’s Magazine. Howells became assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1866, and would serve as editor-in-chief from 1871 to 1880 (Derby 232). He also wrote novels for the Century Magazine and Harper & Brothers Press, his most famous being The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885). Later in his life he penned 31 plays, composed numerous poems, and wrote a series of memoirs about his literary life and acquaintances (Firkins).
References & Biographical Resources Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, Mrs.(Lillian Woodman Aldrich). Crowding Memories. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1920. Howells established a friendship with Aldrich after Aldrich assumed the editorial position at "Every Saturday."Howells was the assitant editor of the "Atlantic Monthly" at that time (87).Mrs. Aldrich quotes Mr. Howells's account of their first meeting from his "Literary Friends and Acquaintance" p. 87-88.During their early days in Boston, after gaining acceptance into the notoriously selective and exclusive Boston society, the Aldriches and Howellses were often invited to dinners to meet each other; these invitations arrived "until the recipients of these attentions with hysterical laughter and almost tears confessed the relief it would be to go somewhere -- anywhere, where they would never hear of see each other again" (91). Howells was still the assistant editor of the "Atlantic Monthly" when Bret Harte made his first visit to Boston as Howells's guest.Mrs. Aldrich quotes Howells's account of the visit in "Literary Friends and Acquaintance p.133-135 (133-135). Howells was also among the company gathered at the Clemens' house during the merry visit Mrs. Aldrich discusses (143).Of the company of Howells, Clemens, Aldrich and Charles Dudley Warner at dinner at the Warner's on the night of their arrival, Mrs. Aldrich claims "never can there be such talk as scintillated about the table that night" and that the men "made a quartette that was incomparable" (145).When the group returned to the Clemens house, the converation continued long into the night.Before it was decided that everyone should go to bed, "Mr. Howells, with eyes suffused with tears, had pleaded with Mrs. Aldrich to use her influence to make Mr. Aldrich abstain from any more provocative speech.Mr. Howells said he could not bear it any longer, he was ill with laughter, and that for friendship's sake Aldrich must be muffled and checked.Let the others talk, but beg him to keep still" (146). Clemens, Aldrich, Curtis, and Howells were among the speakers at the "Authors' Reading" done by the friends of Longfellow for the Longfellow Memorial Fund (256).At this event, Howells read extracts from "Their Wedding Journey" (262). [pages:87-91,102,133-135,143,145,146,158,256,262] Allen, Gay Wilson. The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman. New York: MacMillan, 1955. Allen discusses Howells' trip from Ohio to New York in 1860, specifically, his visit to the Saturday Press offices and Pfaff's.Howells had contributed to the paper and was visit New York after being well-received in New England.Howells was not received well in New York, and later recalled meeting Clapp and Whitman at the offices and at the saloon (230-231). Allen grants that Howells was most likely partially right to think that "Clapp had taken Whitman up because he was so obnoxious to respectable society" (231). [pages:230-231,301,359-60,365,401,491] Baker, Portia. "Walt Whitman and the Atlantic Monthly." American Literature. 1934. 283-301. Baker discusses his role as the editor of the Atlantic Monthly. [pages:284, 285, 286,289,291, 294, 299] Barry, John D. "New York Letter." Literary World. 1894. 184-5. Barry mentions that Howells has left for England on a trip that relatively few people knew about and that was originally planned for the summer.He was supposed to spend the winter in Venice, but Barry reports that he will return to New York "in September and probably spend the season here." Howells reportedly plans to travel to Paris, London, and Holland (184). Barry reports, "Though he [Howells] has justly criticised many things here,he enjoys living in New Yorkand finds it a good place to work in" (184). Barry also mentions that Howells is traveling with his daughter, Miss Mildred Howells, "whose contributions and illustrations in the periodicals have made her known both as a writer and as an illustrator" (184). [pages:184] Belasco, Susan. "From the Field: Walt Whitman's Periodical Poetry." American Periodicals. 14.2 (2004): 247-59. Belasco mentions that his poetry was printed in Clapp's columns of "original" poems, which usually appeared on the first page of the Saturday Press (252). Belasco mentions that Howells "published frequently in Clapp's Saturday Press" andreviewed '"Bardic Symbols" for the Daily Ohio State Journal (253). [pages:252,253] Boynton, Percy Holmes. A History of American Literature. New York: Gin and Company, 1919. 513 p. "This same discipline was enjoyed-among later American authors-by Mark Twain, Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, and Walt Whitman, all of whom were scrupulously careful writers" (49). Boynton claims that "No single group has done more to bring honor to the United States in courts of Europe during the nineteenth century than writers like Irving, Hawthorne, Motley, Howells, Bayard Taylor, Lowell, Hay, and their successors down to Thomas Nelson Page and Brand Whitlock" (118). Boynton relates Howells' discussion of Samuel Clemens' (Mark Twain) English experience: "'I did not care,' said Mr. Howells of Mr. Clemens, 'to expose him to the critical edge of that Cambridge acquaintance which might not have appreciated him at, say, his transatlantic value.In America his popularity was as instant as it was vast.But it must be acknowledged that for a much longer time here than in England polite learning hesitated his praise.... I went with him to see Longfellow, but I do not think Longfellow made much of him, and Lowell made less" (293). "[Mark Twain's] home from 1871-1891 was in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was a neighbor of Charles Dudley Warner and an intimate of the Reverend Joseph Twitchell (the original of Harris in 'A Tramp Abroad'), and where William Dean Howells, his friend of over forty years, often visited him" (384). Boynton mentions that Howells wrote a poem called "My Mark Twain" (393). In regards to Howells' writing, Boynton states, "To his old power to portray the individual in his mental and emotional processes he added a criticism of the role the individual played in society.He added a new consciousness of the institution of which the individual was always the creator, sometimes the beneficiary, and all too often the victim.His maturity as a man and as a writer secured him in his human and artistic equilibrium, and in this degree has distinguished him from younger authors who have written with the same convictions and purposes"(420).Boynton also notes that "In his later studies Mr. Howells is always dealing unaggressively but searchingly with the problem of economic justice, but this is only one of three broad fields" (427). [pages:49(note), 118, 249, 293, 328, 339, 384, 393, 413-422, 427] Cutler, Edward S. "Literary Modernity and the Problem of a National Literature: Understanding William Dean Howells' Critique of Walt Whitman." American Literary Realism. 38.2 (2006): 132-144. Derby, J.C. Fifty Years among Authors, Books and Publishers. New York: G. W. Carleton and Co., 1884. Howells was one of the "foremost writers of fiction" asked by Charles A. Dana to contribute a novelette that would appear in the Sunday edition of the Sun (198). Derby calls him "the now popular novelist," and notes that he was made assitant editor of the AtlanticMonthly in 1866, and after succeed James T. Fields as the principal editor of the magazine (232). Derby notes that Howells retired in 1880, succeed by Aldrich (232). [pages:198,232,283] Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004. 379 p. Mentioned in the 1861 chapter. Howells remarked that Whitman was practically the object of cult worship.Howells also claimed that that the Atlantic [Monthly] was a more desirable showcase for young writers than The Saturday Press. It appears that Howells' visit to Pfaff's prompted by being baited by Clapp to do so.Howells also reportedly did not recognize Whitman and was unawareof his presence until Howells' departure. [pages:54,55,56] Firkins, Oscar W. "William Dean Howells." Dictionary of American Biography. Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC. Folsom, Ed and Kenneth M. Price. Re-Scripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction to His Life and Work. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. Mentioned as a writer Whitman met at Pfaff's. [pages:61] Folsom, Ed and Kenneth M. Price. "Walt Whitman." The Walt Whitman Archive. http://www.whitmanarchive.org, 2006. Folsom and Price write that at Pfaff's "a young William Dean Howells met Whitman; Howells recalled this meeting many years later, when he made it clear that Whitman had already by the time of their meeting become something of a celebrity, even if his fame was largely the infamy resulting from what many considered to be his obscene writings ('foul work' filled with 'libidinousness,' scolded The Christian Examiner). Ford, James L. "Good By Bohemia." The New York Tribune. 11 Jan. 1922: Part 2, Page 1. According to Ford, Howells went to Pfaff's once and "spoke to me of it with disapproval" (1).Howells is also described as "part of the more conservative literary element" who were critical of the Bohemians (1). [pages:1] Greenslet, Ferris. The Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Boston:Houghton Mifflin, 1908. Greenslet cites Howells' "Literary Friends and Acquaintence" to support his claims about the prevailing feeling during its first year that the "Saturday Press" would have a successful future (43). Greenslet also quotes excerpts from Howells' "Saturday Press" review of Aldrich's poetry and "The Ballad of Baby Bell, and Other Poems" (47). Aldrich discusses his new friendhisp with Howells in a letter to Taylor on p.81-82. Aldrich mentions in a letter to Stedman that Howells passed him one of Stedman's poems and one of Stoddard's poems (128) Greenslet reprints some of the correspondence between Aldrich and Howells on pp. 89,94,102,116-7,120-5,129,191-4,211-2,218-222.These letters discuss personal, career, and literary matters. [pages:43,47,81-82,89,94,102,116-117,120-125,128,129,191-194,211-212,218-222] Hahn, Emily. Romantic Rebels; An Informal History of Bohemianism in America. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1967. 318 p. [pages:29-30] "Harper's Magazine." Brooklyn Eagle. 27 May 1895: 10. [pages:10] Hemstreet, Charles. Literary New York: Its Landmarks and Associations. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1903. Hemstreet mentions that Howells visited Pfaff's during his first visit to New York and dined with WaltWhitman (218). Hemstreet mentions that Howells has filled Curtis' "Easy Chair" at Harper's Magazine (235). Hemstreet notes that the larger apartment house close to Sixth Avenue and Central Park, where "William Dean Howells did much of his work" is still standing at the time of Hemstreet's writing (251). [pages:218, 200-n/a(ill),235,251] Holloway, Emory. Walt Whitman: An Interpretation in Narrative. New York & London: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. Remebered Whitman for "jovian largeness and ease, his personal purit and friendliness." Holloway notes that Howells used similar writing techniques as Whitman, such as including himself in his view and story of America, but Howells seems to have been more moderate in this approach. [pages:158,298] Howells, William Dean. "First Impressions of Literary New York." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 01 Jun. 1895: 62-74. Howells feels that the "Bohemian group represented New York literature to my imagination" (63). He discusses how the anti-Boston sentiment of the New York Bohemians made him uneasy during his first visit to the offices of the Saturday Press (64). Howells states that the same day he visited the Saturday Press, he also visited the "beer cellar," "where I was given to know that the Bohemian nights were smoked and quaffed away" (64).He felt he should visit since he had been a contributor to the Saturday Press and that he should at least "witness" the "revels of my comrades" (64).Of the conversation that night, Howells claims that "Nothing of their talk remains with me, but the impression remains that it was not so good talk as I heard in Boston" (64).Howells also claims that his first night with the Bohemians was his last Bohemian evening and the last of his New York authorship for a period. Says of his visit that "The Bohemians were the beginning and end of the story for me, and to tell the truth I did not like the story" (66).Howells mentions that during his visit of Pfaff's he found the conversation, humor, and atmosphere unpleasant to his sensibilties; he much preferred the Boston literary circle.He claims that after that evening, much of the rest of his New York trip was spent sight-seeing. Howells also discusses issues with publishing and writing for young American writers. [pages:62-68, 67(ill.)] Hyman, Martin D. "'Where the Drinkers & Laughers Meet': Pfaff's: Whitman's Literary Lair." Seaport. 26(1991): 56-61. Identified as a contributor to The Saturday Press. [pages:58,59] Lalor, Eugene. "Whitman among the New York Literary Bohemians: 1859–1862." Walt Whitman Review. 25(1979): 131-145. Lalor argues that Howells's account of meeting Whitman at Pfaff's contradicts the view of some biographers (Lalor cites Parry) of Whitman's "extreme detachment" at Pfaff's (133).Lalor also quotes Howells on Whitman's debt to the Saturday Press (138). [pages:133,134,138] Lalor, Eugene T. The Literary Bohemians of New York City in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Ph.D. Dissertation, St. John's University, 1977. Mentioned as a critic of the Pfaffians. [pages:10,13,15,20,22,26,27,29,38,40,48] Lause, Mark A. The Antebellum Crisis and America's First Bohemians. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2009. Ohioan William Dean Howells visited Pfaff's and recorded his poor impressions of the rowdiness of the crowd there (78). [pages:78, 115] Levin, Joanna. Bohemia in America, 1858-1920. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. Upon his visit to Pfaff's, William Dean Howells found it to be like an "orgy" and commented on the "awful appearance" of some of the Bohemians (38). In 1860, a young William Dean Howells traveled to New York to meet the Bohemians, who had published some of his poetry in the Saturday Press. However, once there, Howells asserted himself as a representative Bostonian, perpetuating the rivalry between the literary cities. Howells found in New York "'a bitterness against Boston as great as the bitterness against respectability'" (57). Levin remarks that "among the Pfaffians, Howells dutifully embodied the role of the Boston Bourgeois." Howells looked down upon the Pfaffins "by contrasting them with the institutions of a culture increasingly constructed as 'high' and consummately respectable" (58). For Howells, New York "encouraged a fall from an earlier ethic and aesthetic of responsibility and indicated the emergence of a laissez-faire economy of the self" (64). [pages:12, 21-22, 38, 57, 58, 63, 64, 66, 67] Levin, Joanna Dale. American Bohemias, 1858-1912: A Literary and Cultural Geography. Ph.D Dissertation; Stanford University, 2001. 394 p. Howells is mentioned as one of the "disparate writers" who discuss "Bohemia" in their works (4).Levin notes that in accounts of Bohemian life, such as Howells' A Modern Issue and The Coast of Bohemia, "the regional metonymizes the provincial and upholds traditional values, while Bohemia represents an urbane, if outre, metropolitanism" (9). Levin mentions that the Saturday Press was influential enough for Howells to say that "at the time, it 'represented New York literature to my imagination' and 'embodied the new literary life of the city'" (23). Levin presents him as a representative Bostonian among the Bohemians. [pages:iv,4,9,23,48,65-66,73-75,82-83,86,95n10,113,116,198,199,208,248,251,253-266] Levin, Joanna Dale. American Bohemias, 1858-1912: A Literary and Cultural Geography. Ph.D Dissertation; Stanford University, 2001. 394 p. Howells is mentioned as one of the "disparate writers" who discuss "Bohemia" in their works (4).Levin notes that in accounts of Bohemian life, such as Howells' A Modern Issue and The Coast of Bohemia, "the regional metonymizes the provincial and upholds traditional values, while Bohemia represents an urbane, if outre, metropolitanism" (9). Levin mentions that the Saturday Press was influential enough for Howells to say that "at the time, it 'represented New York literature to my imagination' and 'embodied the new literary life of the city'" (23). Levin presents him as a representative Bostonian among the Bohemians. [pages:iv,4,9,23,48,65-66,73-75,82-83,86,95n10,113,116,198,199,208,248,251,253-266] "Literary Matters." New-York Saturday Press. 13 Mar. 1866: 4. [pages:4] "Literary News." The Literary World. 11 May 1873: 189-192. Discussed as inventing the work "mistakeness" in the Atlantic. [pages:192] Loving, Jerome. Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself. Berkley Calif. : University of California Press, 1999. 568 p. Ohioan, allegedly met Whitman at Pfaff's shortly after first his meetings with the New England literary Brahmins.Howells' presence at Pfaff's has been challenged by William Winter. Howells published several poems in The Saturday Press. His negative review of Whitman may have prompted Whitman's promotion of Leaves of Grass. [pages:235,304-305] Lukens, Henry Clay. "American Literary Comedians." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 01 Apr. 1890: 783-797. [pages:795] Maurice, Arthur Bartlett. "Literary Clubland II:New York's Literary Clubs." The Bookman: A Review of Books and Life. 01 Jun. 1905: 392-406. The article cites Howells' Literary Friends and Acquaintances as providing an account of Howells' first meeting with Whitman. [pages:396] Miller, Tice L. Bohemians and Critics: American Theatre Criticism in the Nineteenth Century. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1981. To the "prudish" Howells, the "Pfaff's crowd represented the new literary life of the city" (17).Howells was one of many young writers assisted by Henry Clapp (25). Commenting on the Saturday Press: "'It wasclever and full of wit that tries its teeth upon everything,' Howells later recalled.'It attacked all literary shams but its own, and it made itself felt and feared'" (26). "Howells thought it 'very nearly as well to be accepted by the Press as by the Atlantic" (26). "William Dean Howells described the prose of the Saturday Press as 'shredded . . . into very fine paragraphs of a sentence each, or of a very few words, or even of one word'" (27). "Writing much later about the Bohemians, William Dean Howells thought that Henry Clapp had mellowed in his last years: 'I have the feeling that he too came to own before he died that man cannot live by snapping-turtle alone'" (40). [pages:17, 25, 26, 27, 40, 142] Parry, Albert. Garrets and Pretenders: A History of Bohemianism in America. New York: Covici, Friede, 1933. Parry writes that on Howell's only visit to Pfaff's, he "found the German pancakes rather toothsome, though he charged the saloon with the poor appetite show by Clapp's men at supper" (22). During Howell's visit to the offices of the Saturday Press that same August, 1860, Parry mentions that "he found himself displeased with the foreign character of Henry's coterie which he called 'a sickly colony, transplanted from the mother asphalt of Paris, and never really striking root in the pavements of New York'" (24).According to Parry, during this visit, Howells went to Pfaff's to see Whitman and also because he was "curious about" Ada Clare, whose reputation had spread as far as his native Ohio; he also conceded, however, that "it was taken for granted that she was a brilliant woman."During this visit, Parry writes that Howells's "soul of propriety revolted at the sight of Pfaffians 'who neither said nor did anything worthy of their awful appearance,' but he forgave Walt's naturalness for his talent and dignity, and Ada's wild reputation for her 'sprightly gift in letters.'"Parry also notes that "In later years he spoke with feeling of her fate, which, 'pathetic at all times, out-tragedies almost any other in the history of letters'" (28).Parry claims that when Howells visited Pfaff's, Whitman mistook him "for a member of the faithful and warmly shook his hand as the chaste young Ohioan was angrily leaving the cellar.Whitman did not know who Howells was an dstill less what he was destined to become, but he liked to play his role of a benevolent celebrity and shake strangers' hands with hearty magnificence" (38).According to Parry, Howells liked Whitman's beard "the best of all the Pfaffian scenery" (42). As an example of one of Clapp's "bon mots," Parry cites the instance when Clapp learned from "Howells that he and Hawthorne were shy when meeting each other, Clapp dubbed them a couple of shysters, much to the merriment of present Pfaffians" (45).Parry writes that on Clapp's death, "Howells wrote that Henry was not such a cynic after all, that 'he had really talked himself into being what he seemed.'Howells wanted to see the whole world smiling, he tried to find in Clapp 'a kindly optimist at heart.'He intimated, in effect, that Clapp might have been sorry for his fire and sharpness at least in his dying moment.But if Clapp, on his deathbed, was indeed remorseful over anything, it was most likely over the fact that he was one of the first to encourage Howells and print his youthful poems.However, there might have been consolation for the dying Clapp in his memory that he never paid Howells for his contributions" (48). In the 1870s, Aldrich and Howells were elected members of the Boston Payrus Club begun by John Boyle O'Reilly without being aware of the club's "scarlet lining" as a Bohemian organization (139).According to Parry, when O'Reilly produced and printed the "national anthem of the boundless realm of Bohemia" called "In Bohemia" to the club, "If William Dean Howells was gruff about it or, at best, coldly condescending, the other members frankly raved" (140). Parry notes that in the 1890s, during the popularity of a new brand of Bohemainism, he wrote in his 1893 novel The Coast of Bohemai that "to explain what Bohemain meant, and what Bohemia was...no one can quite do."Parry writes that "He was not so wrong at that.Howells then proceeded to pull Bohemia's ears -- very gently -- as a harmless pretension."Parry also notes that secure in his own reputation, Howells could take a "paternal" attitude towards the young Bohemains of this period, as they were "not as ferocious as Clapp" and "did not try to drag Howells off his pedestal; in fact, they respected their elders and were awed by the standards of Boston" (100).According to Parry, by 1900, there were so many versions of "Bohemianism" in America "that Howells' picture of it became even more narrow and stilted than it was in 1893 (106). [pages:22,24,28,38(ill.),42,45,48,90,99-102,106,107,139,140,267] Pattee, Fred Louis. The Feminine Fifties. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, Incorporated, 1940. [pages:300] "Poems of Two Friends." New York Saturday Press. 28 Jan. 1860: 1. Rawson, A. L. "A Bygone Bohemia." Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. 01 Jan. 1896: 96-107. Howells is not specifically mentioned by name, but it is clear from the context of the essay that he is being referred to by Rawson. [pages:99] Renehan, Edward, Jr. John Burroughs: An American Naturalist. New York: Black Dome Press, 1998. [pages:128, 191, 221, 257, 290, 306, 311] Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Identified as a writer Whitman met at Pfaff's. [pages:15] Rogers, Cameron. The Magnificent Idler,the story of Walt Whitman. New York: Garden City, Doubleday, Page and Co., 1926. 312 p. While Howells only visited Pfaff's once, Rogers implies that he is a regular. [pages:199] Schanke, Robert A.and Kimberley Bell Marra, eds. Passing Performances : Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. 338 p. "Two major American literary critics, William Dean Howells and James Gibbons Huneker, published widely read eulogies.Whether it was merely coincidental or wheter the Shuberts intentionally sought to exploit Ibsen's death, it certainly brought attention to their new star" (132). [pages:132] Schmidgall, Gary, ed. Conserving Walt Whitman's Fame: Selections from Horace Traubel's Conservator, 1890-1919. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006. Scholnick, Robert. "Whitman and the Magazines: Some Documentary Evidence." American Literature. 44.2 (1972): 222-246. Seitz, Don Carlos. Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne): A Biography and Bibliography. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1919. [pages:89, 99, 332, 333, 336] Stansell, Christine. "Whitman at Pfaff's: Commercial Culture, Literary Life and New York Bohemia at Mid-Century." Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. 10.3 (1993): 107-126. Stansell writes that Howells's writings about his 1860 visit indicate that he was "disappointed athow lackluster were the libertines" (111).Stansell discusses this visit in more detail, focusing on Howells's interactions with Clapp when he visited the Saturday Press (120).According to Stansell, "Howells' mistake was to be from Boston.We can view the entire account of his meeting with Clapp as materializing from his decades-long battle against the ascendancy of New York over his beloved Boston as literary capital of the country.Howells was both drawn to the literary dynamism of New York and repelled by it, and he preserved until the end of his life a nostalgia for the well-bred Boston literary elite which had enfolded him in their circle when he first migrated to the city from the Midwest in 1861.For Howells, Clapp's 'bad' qualities were inseparable from his New-York-ness: 'he embodied the new literary life of that city.' And at the heart of that life was a contempt for Boston, 'a bitterness against Boston as great as the bitterness against respectability'" (120-121). Stansell notes that like Whitman and Twain, Howells started his journalistic career as a printer (114). Howells is mentioned as one of many "urban tourists" who may have peered into its [Pfaff's] gloomy interior to take in the 'sight' [of the Bohemians]."Stansell writes, however, that this perception of a "showcase" of the bohemians at Pfaff's may have been one of the group's self-perceptions (115). [pages:111,114,115,120-121,123] Starr, Louis Morris. Bohemian Brigade; Civil War Newsmen in Action. New York: Knopf, 1954. In William Dean Howell's opinion, it was as good to be published in the Saturday Press as it was to be published in the Atlantic Monthly, since despite one critic's claim that "man cannot live by snapping turtle alone," Howells admitted, in response, that "the Press was very good snapping turtle" (4-5). In a discussion of the idea that "To be a Bohemian affored license for all manner of youthful exuberances," Starr quotes Howell's observations about the Bohemians on the night he visted Pfaff's: "[Howells} noted the arrival of a pair 'whom the others made a great clamor over; I was given to understand that they had just recovered from a fearful debauch'" (7). [pages:4-5,7] Traubel, Horace. Intimate with Walt: Selections from Whitman's Conversations with Horace Traubel, 1888-1892. Ed. Schmidgall, Gary. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001. Whitman told Traubel that he thinks well of Howells, but that Howells is much fatter that Dr. John Johnston and that "He is inclined to be suave, kind, courteous - has his parts and holds them well."Whitman called Howells and Aldrich"errand boys." [pages:205-206, 207-208,234] Twain, Mark. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. Ed. Charles Neider. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. [pages:xiii-xiv, xxvi,xxxi, 335, 363, 387, 429, 481, 503] Whitman, Walt. "Letter to William D. O'Connor, January 6, 1865." Walt Whitman: The Correspondence. Ed. Edwin Haviland Miller. New York: New York University Press, 1961. 246-248. Whitman notes that he sees the Howells "now and then." [pages:247] Whitman, Walt. "Letter to William D. O'Connor, September 15, 1867." Walt Whitman: The Correspondance. Ed. Edwin Haviland Miller. New York: New York University Press, 1961. 338-340. Whitman notes that there is nothing new going on with Howells. [pages:339] Wilson, James Grant and John Fiske, eds. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume III, Grinnwell-Lockwood. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. In 1886 Howells accepted a salaried position with Harper's Magazine as head of the "Editor's Study," in which he outlined his thoery for modern fiction. [pages:285-287, 286(ill.)] Winter, William. Old Friends; Being Literary Recollections of Other Days. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909. Winter describes Howell's first meeting with Whitman at Pfaff's."Mr. W. D. Howells, now the voluminous and celebrated novelist,--...,--came into the cave, especially, as afterward was divulged, for the purpose of adoring the illustrious Whitman.Mr. Howells, at that time, was a respectable youth, in black raiment, who had only just entered on the path to glory, while Whitman, by reason of that odiferous classic, the 'Leaves of Grass,' was in possession of the local Parnassus. The meeting, of course, was impressive.Walt, at that time, affected the Pompadour style of shirt and jacket,--making no secret of his brawny anatomy,-- and his hirsute chest and complacent visage were, as usual, on liberal exhibition: and he tippled a little brandy and water and received his admirer's homage with characteristic benignity.There is nothing like genius--unless possibly it may be leather" (89-90). In discussing the true nature of Bohemia and celebrations at Pfaff'sCave in response to Howells's recollection of the "orgy" he witnessed, Winter discusses a birthday celebration for Clapp in which Whitman was called upon to give the toast: "I have regretted the absence of Mr. Howells from a casual festival which occurred in Pfaff's Cave, much about the time of his advent there, when the lads (those tremendous revellers!) drank each a glass of beer in honor of the birthday of Henry Clapp, and when he might, for once, have felt the ravishing charm of Walt Whitman's clossal eloquence.It fell to the lot of that Great Bard, I remember, to propose the health of the Prince of Bohemia, which he did in the following marvellous words: 'That's the feller!" It was my privilege to hear that thrilling deliverance, and to admire and applaud that superb orator.Such amazing emanations of intellect seldom occur, and it seems indeed a pity that this one should not have had Mr. Howells to embroider it with his ingenious fancy and embalm it in the amber of his veracious rhetoric" (91-92). Winter also indicates that the Pfaff's crowd did not take much of a liking to Howells: "Sad to relate, he was not present; and, equally sad to relate, the 'types' whom he met at Pfaff's Cave, and by whom he was 'distinctly disappointed,' were quite as 'distinctly disappointed' by him.They thought him a prig" (92). Winter remarks upon Howell's later published recollections of the "orgy" he witnessed during his visit to Pfaff's.Winter remarks that "The fine fancy and fertile invention that have made Mr. Howells everywhere illustrious were never better exemplified than in these remarkable words; for, as a matter of fact, no such indcidents occurred, either then or at any other time, nor did the novelist ever see them, except in his 'mind's eye.'Fancy is both a wonderful faculty for a writer of fiction and a sweet boon for the reader of it" (90-91). In response to Howells' criticisms of the Bohemians and in a discussion of their writing, Winter states: "Revelry requires money: at the time Mr. Howells met those Bohemians, -- with the 'damp locks' and the 'frenzied eyes,' -- it is probably that the group did not possess enough money among them all to buy a quart bottle of champagne.Furthermore, they were writers of remarkable quality, and they were under the stringent necessity of working continually and very hard: and it seems pertinent to suggest that such a poem, for instance, as George Arnold's 'Old Pedagogue,' or Fitz-James O'Brien's Ode in commemoration of Kane, or Charles Dawson Shanly's 'Walker of the Snow,' is not to be produced from under the stimulation of alcohol.Literature is a matter of brains, not drugs.It would be equally just and sensible for American criticism to cherish American literature, and to cease from carping about the infirmities, whether actual or putative, of persons dead and gone, who can no longer defend themselves" (93). [pages:89-91,91-92,93] Wolle, Francis. Fitz-James O'Brien: A Literary Bohemian of the Eighteen-Fifties. Boulder, Col.; University of Colorado, 1944. Wolle reprints his account of and criticism of Bohemia and the circle at Pfaff's.Howells says that F. Ludlow, Aldrich, Stedman were all present at Pfaff's. Wolle also refers to a conversation between Howells and Clapp ("their chief") about Hawthorne. [pages:99] Zweig, Paul. Walt Whitman: The Making of the Poet. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1984. His visit to Pfaff's occurred during August 1860.Howells about meeting Whitman during this visit. [pages:313-314]