Howells Queries: Who was the “single guest” who laughed at the Whittier Birthday DInner Speech?

[Reposting to include replies.]

Dear William Dean Howells Society:

I am writing about John Greenleaf Whittier’s 70^th birthday party, at which Mr. Howells was the toastmaster, and at which Samuel Clemens gave his controversial speech.

In Mr. Howells’ account of that speech, he says that the silence “…deepened from moment to moment, and was broken only by the hysterical and blood-curdling laughter of a single guest, whose name shall not be handed down to infamy.”

My question is, is it known, now, who that guest was? I’m wondering if it showed up in any of his correspondence or personal notes.

Sincerely,

Stephen Sakellarios

[leave suggestions in the comments]

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Would it have been Howells himself?

All best,

Owen Clayton
[reposted from howells-l]

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It was Longfellow! See here.

http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/onstage/whitnews.html

Scroll down untill you get to the description of the “eccentric” speech and you will see the record of Longfellow’s behavior.

Rosslyn Elliott

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From Tom Wortham:

I’m in the process of reorganizing my library, and so I can’t find Henry Nash Smith’s MT: The Development of a Writer (1962), but I seem to recall that having noticed that the Boston newspaper report indicated [laughter] at several places during its account of the speech, Smith argued that perhaps Howells’ own discomfort that evening caused him to misremember the audience’s reaction to the talk.

Tom Wortham

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Francis James Child, the collector of English historical ballads and folk balladry, is suposed to have been the person who laughed at the back of the audience, probably becuase his work in folk resources allowed him to “get” the humor of what Twain was doing in pretty much the spirit Twain intended. Child, I believe, continued to think that the audience was unreasonably cool to the speech, long afterwords. I cannot supply the source of this information, though, since I noticed it in passing.

Dave Sloane

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It was Mathew Franklin Whittier, younger brother of the birthday boy, John Greenleaf Whittier. He had ghost-written the story for Clemens, probably setting it in New England, and Clemens had reworked it so as to set it in California. It was Mathew’s practical joke and birthday present to his brother. I have quite a bit of background evidence–e-mail me if you’re interested.
ssake-at-goldthread-dot-com
Stephen Sakellarios

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Howells Queries: Compendium of reviews?

Hello, all. I’ve been searching without much luck to see if anyone has compiled reviews of William Dean Howells’ works as they came out, similar to Routlege’s Critical Heritage series, or the kind of appendices common to Broadview and Norton Critical editions. Aside from some contemporaneous reviews included amongst the longer critical pieces in Edwin Cady’s The War of the Critics over William Dean Howells, I don’t find any such animal. The Selected Edition has plenty of good textual notes, but no critical appendices, so far as I can see. Does anyone here know if any such resource has been put together, in print or online? 

David Wright

Seattle Public Library

Howells Queries: Portrait of Howells by John White Alexander.

Mary Anne GoleyFebruary 8, 2021 at 1:44 pm

I do find your website difficult to follow but in the hopes that I am in the right place, is it possible to post a query about a portrait of Howells by John White Alexander (1856-1915). I am preparing the catalogue raisonee and would like to locate the actual portrait.

Howells Queries: Poem about Margaret Garner?

I was wondering if someone could answer a question for me; I’m assisting a faculty member at Northern Kentucky University.  We are interested in a poem W.D. Howells wrote about Margaret Garner (but the poem may not contain her name).  We think it could have been published in either The Ohio State Journal or perhaps the Ashtabula Sentinel, around 1856 (neighborhood).  Are you aware of any poem that fits this description?  Can you offer any citation information so that we may attempt to find it?

Thank you for your time and assistance,

 

Danny Lovell

Northern Kentucky University

Howells in the Franklin Square Library Series

From Paul Petrie:

Dear Dr. Petrie: I am contacting you in your role as editor of the Howellsian.

Two colleagues and I are researching the book covers of a late 19th-century artist, and have reason to believe that a series of William Dean Howells novels, published ca. 1890-1895, in paperback in the Franklin Square Library Series, by Harper & Bros., were done by the same artist. However, these paperback editions are rare and we have only located images of a few of them.

Perhaps you would be so kind as to inquire of the members of the William Dean Howells Society if any of them might own a copy in this series. If so, and if the person would be willing to send a scan of the cover, I would be very grateful to be contacted directly.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Mary L. Kwas

University of Arkansas System (retired)

Lansing, Michigan

mkwas@uark.edu

Queries: Unrecorded Howells manuscript?

From a comment posted at https://howellssociety.wordpress.com/queries/. If you have suggestions, post them in the comments here or on howells-l. Thanks!

***

Hello,

I am representing a client who has what may be an unrecorded William Dean Howells manuscript and I am looking for assistance in possibly identifying it. (I also am not an expert in Howells’s handwriting, so it is, of course, very possible that it is not the work of Howells.)

The manuscript seems to be the first three chapters (totaling 109 manuscript pages and three manuscript slips) of a novel, written across the pages of a salesman’s dummy of Grant’s Memoirs.

The handwriting is easy to read: the story begins in the middle of the subscription list (about two-thirds of the way into the salesman’s dummy) with possible epigraphs and a character list with the characters’ ages preceding the text. It then continues at the beginning of the book until re-connecting with the opening lines.

I’ve read the story (and enjoyed it!). It involves an aspiring writer, Ralph Estabrook who falls in love with a poor young girl (Nancy “Nan” Valcour, who is fifteen when they meet), but then marries an older heiress, Miss Charlotte Thursby.

Ten years pass, Estabrook (who is now successful as a speaker and writer) and his wife have been separated for five years; Nan Valcour has come into an unexpected inheritance and become a famous singer. The two meet again, they declare their love for each other, but Valcour will not marry Estabrook because he is, although separated from his wife, still married. Even if he can get a divorce, she will not accept him because he will still be married “in God’s eyes”.

The setting is a small coastal village, with the Valcour’s house situated on an island (“Clam Island”). There are resemblances to Cape Cod, with even a reference to Cape Cod at one point.

Does this sound at all familiar to anyone?

If it is Howells, my guess is that he picked up a used salesman’s dummy (the subscriptions seem to have been filled) lying around at Charles Webster’s and just began writing.

If there are any Howells handwriting experts who could help (I have images of all the pages I could forward) – or if this story sounds familiar to anyone – I would love to hear from you.

Thanks!
Michael DiRuggiero
Owner, The Manhattan Rare Book Company

*** Update 10/28/16

Thanks to  Gary Culbert, who suggests here https://howellssociety.wordpress.com/queries/  that this is likely not Howells’s handwriting.

I’d have to agree. Here’s a sample of Howells’s handwriting for comparison: 

Thanks for the query and the reply! –Donna Campbell

Howells Queries: “Eighty Years and After” and “On a Bright Winter’s Day”

This is a Query: I was rereading the book “The Last Harvest” by John Burroughs (1922). In his last essays, there is mentioned of Howell’s “Eighty Years and After” and a poem “On a Bright Winter’s Day.” I am looking for what publication or website may have these works available to read. Thank you for any assistance.

Sincerely, Peter Laurent / Vallejo, California

Howells Queries: Stagecoach metaphor for bureaucracy

I am frantically looking for the name of the article, story, book that WD Howells wrote on bureauracracy that WD Howells wrote. It was about a coach or stagecoach on which people kept climbing on and falling off and everyone was trying to get to the top of the coach. This influenced my conceptions strongly and I would like to pass it on to others but have forgotten the name.

 Margaret Nadey RN,RCNP,CON,CNM,CLNC,SSANE,VNI

Howells Queries: Picture of and Letter from Howells

I am thinking of donating this wonderful display of the innovative W. D. Howells. There are attached iPhone picts. I would appreciate the WDHS’s opinion of the uniqueness this authentic original picture and 1889 letter.  I would like to know what the letter is saying, as I cannot read many of the words.  –Kevin Reach

Howells Queries: Who was the “single guest” who laughed at the Whittier Birthday DInner Speech?

Dear William Dean Howells Society:

I am writing about John Greenleaf Whittier’s 70^th birthday party, at which Mr. Howells was the toastmaster, and at which Samuel Clemens gave his controversial speech.

In Mr. Howells’ account of that speech, he says that the silence “…deepened from moment to moment, and was broken only by the hysterical and blood-curdling laughter of a single guest, whose name shall not be handed down to infamy.”

My question is, is it known, now, who that guest was? I’m wondering if it showed up in any of his correspondence or personal notes.

Sincerely,

Stephen Sakellarios

[leave suggestions in the comments]