Willian Dean Howells

Assignment Three -- William Dean Howells
A Hazard of New Fortunes

It is remarkable that despite having to end his formal schooling at the age of ten in order to go to work with his father, William Dean Howells became the most important editor of his age, a man so important as a literary arbiter and mentor that American literary history in the last two decades of the nineteenth century has been called "The Age of Howells" (vi). It is fitting that a man who dedicated much of his adult energy to supporting progressive causes got his start by writing a campaign biography for Abraham Lincoln.

Howells was not only a direct help to writers as different as Henry James and Mark Twain, but he also was the most important theorist of literary realism in America. As described in Phillip Lopate's Introduction to A Hazard of New Fortunes, realism, for Howells, meant rejecting sentiment, melodrama, and heroic exaggeration in favor of "truthfulness, the 'commonplace,' the rhythms and concerns of ordinary daily life" (x).

1886 was a year of great labor unrest in America, a year in which the Knights of Labor reached their greatest influence and then began to decline. One of the major issues was labor's demand for an eight-hour workday. Their rallying cry,"Eight Hours for What We Will," was a line from the union song "Eight Hours." Howells's A Hazard of New Fortunes reflects those labor conflicts.

In March of 1886, Howells was living in New York City during the streetcar workers strike pictured above. A similar strike occasions the climactic action in A Hazard of New Fortunes. In May of 1886, a bomb exploded at a union rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago, killing eight policement and setting off a retaliatory round up of suspected radicals. Although no evidence connected them to the bombing, four union leaders were hanged in 1887. In his Introduction to A Hazard iof New Fortunes, Phillip Lopate states that Howells, who was a lifelong supporter of progressive causes, "was moved to a more militant disenchantment by the Haymarket Affair "(x).

William Dean Howels and his wife Elinor

The public debate that swirled around the Haymarket affair influenced Howells's use of labor unrest in A Hazard of New Fortunes, but the personal tragedy of the death of his daughter Winnie stopped his writing and then led him to focus the last portions of the novel on the life altering grief suffered by Mr. Dryfoos after the death of his sone Conrad. Moreover the fact that Winifred Howells died in 1889 while under the care of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell may remind some of you of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper," written in 1899 in protest of Gilman's treatment by Dr. Mitchell (See "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'"). In A Hazard of New Fortunes Howells does not address the feminist issues that Gilman does, but he does present a version of the New Woman in the character of Alma Leighton.

For many Americans of the time the issues of labor unrest and immigration were closely connected. For an overview of late nineteenth century efforts to restrict immigration read "Nativism and Immigration Restriction" from Who Built America (2000).

George McManus, Bringing Up Father, 1913 --

Rudolf Dirks, Katzenjammer Kids , 1897--

Howells' effort to reproduce Lindau's speech in A Hazard of New Fortunes is reminiscent of the dialect humor that was an important part of late-nineteenth early-twentieth-century American popular culture, often aimed at the two largest immigrant groups -- Germans and Irish. The comic strip Bringing Up Father featured Jiggs, a parvenu Irishman. The Katzenjammer Kids featured German dialect and the malicious Hans and Fritz. A literary example is one of Charles Leland's popular "Breitmann" poems, "A Ballad Apout de Rowdies," which tells the "comic" story of his German protagonist being beaten up by American rowdies.

A Hazard of New Fortunes presents distinct possibilites for young women of the time. Christine Dryfoos is a superficial, self-centered woman who expects to be admired because of her father's wealth. Margaret Vance is a wealthy "do-gooder," an idealist who stands as an example of the wealthy women who like Jane Addams were often leaders in the reform movements of the late nineteenth century. Alma Leighton is an example of the New Woman, increasingly independent women who wanted financial independence and the right to make important decision regarding their own lives. The 1895 cover from The Ladies Home Journal pictured to the right features two "Gibson girls," the idealized women made popular by the illustrator Charles Gibson in the 1890s. "The physical type he portrayed became the standard of beauty, a romantic ideal that suggested a new independence while also celebrating the privileges and glamor of social elite" (Who Built America? 195).

John D. Rockfeller in 1895 at the opening of Alta House, a daycare center for the children of working women in Cleveland's Little Italy.

By some economic measures, America came of age in the last part of the nineteenth century. In 1885, the industrial production of the United States surpassed that of any other nation. By 1910, industrial output in the U.S. was greater than that of England and Germany combined.

Historians often refer to the last three decades of the nineteenth century as the Gilded Age, a name taken from the novel The Gilded Age co-authored by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in 1973. In the character of Mr. Dryfoos, Howells' A Hazard of New Fortunes portrays a Gilded Age figure, the newly wealthy speculator. Americans of the time were fascinated and sometimes appalled at the vast wealth accumulated by individuals such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Fisk, Morgan, and Vanderbilt. The PBS companion site to the film biography of Andrew Carnegie provides a useful summary of the age and some photographs of the mansions that sprang up during this time on Fifth Avenue in new York City.

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updated June 14, 2006

It is remarkable that despite having to end his formal schooling at the age of ten in order to go to work with his father, William Dean Howells became the most important editor of his age, a man so important as a literary arbiter and mentor that American literary history in the last two decades of the nineteenth century has been called "The Age of Howells" (vi). It is fitting that a man who dedicated much of his adult energy to supporting progressive causes got his start by writing a campaign biography for Abraham Lincoln. Howells was not only a direct help to writers as different as Henry James and Mark Twain, but he also was the most important theorist of literary realism in America. As described in Phillip Lopate's Introduction to A Hazard of New Fortunes, realism, for Howells, meant rejecting sentiment, melodrama, and heroic exaggeration in favor of "truthfulness, the 'commonplace,' the rhythms and concerns of ordinary daily life" (x).



	1886 was a year of great labor unrest in America, a year in which the Knights of Labor reached their greatest influence and then began to decline. One of the major issues was labor's demand for an eight-hour workday. Their rallying cry,"Eight Hours for What We Will," was a line from the union song "Eight Hours." Howells's A Hazard of New Fortunes reflects those labor conflicts. In March of 1886, Howells was living in New York City during the streetcar workers strike pictured above. A similar strike occasions the climactic action in A Hazard of New Fortunes. In May of 1886, a bomb exploded at a union rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago, killing eight policement and setting off a retaliatory round up of suspected radicals. Although no evidence connected them to the bombing, four union leaders were hanged in 1887. In his Introduction to A Hazard iof New Fortunes, Phillip Lopate states that Howells, who was a lifelong supporter of progressive causes, "was moved to a more militant disenchantment by the Haymarket Affair "(x).

William Dean Howels and his wife Elinor	The public debate that swirled around the Haymarket affair influenced Howells's use of labor unrest in A Hazard of New Fortunes, but the personal tragedy of the death of his daughter Winnie stopped his writing and then led him to focus the last portions of the novel on the life altering grief suffered by Mr. Dryfoos after the death of his sone Conrad. Moreover the fact that Winifred Howells died in 1889 while under the care of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell may remind some of you of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper," written in 1899 in protest of Gilman's treatment by Dr. Mitchell (See "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'"). In A Hazard of New Fortunes Howells does not address the feminist issues that Gilman does, but he does present a version of the New Woman in the character of Alma Leighton. For many Americans of the time the issues of labor unrest and immigration were closely connected. For an overview of late nineteenth century efforts to restrict immigration read "Nativism and Immigration Restriction" from Who Built America (2000).
George McManus, Bringing Up Father, 1913 --
Rudolf Dirks, Katzenjammer Kids , 1897--		Howells' effort to reproduce Lindau's speech in A Hazard of New Fortunes is reminiscent of the dialect humor that was an important part of late-nineteenth early-twentieth-century American popular culture, often aimed at the two largest immigrant groups -- Germans and Irish. The comic strip Bringing Up Father featured Jiggs, a parvenu Irishman. The Katzenjammer Kids featured German dialect and the malicious Hans and Fritz. A literary example is one of Charles Leland's popular "Breitmann" poems, "A Ballad Apout de Rowdies," which tells the "comic" story of his German protagonist being beaten up by American rowdies.
A Hazard of New Fortunes presents distinct possibilites for young women of the time. Christine Dryfoos is a superficial, self-centered woman who expects to be admired because of her father's wealth. Margaret Vance is a wealthy "do-gooder," an idealist who stands as an example of the wealthy women who like Jane Addams were often leaders in the reform movements of the late nineteenth century. Alma Leighton is an example of the New Woman, increasingly independent women who wanted financial independence and the right to make important decision regarding their own lives. The 1895 cover from The Ladies Home Journal pictured to the right features two "Gibson girls," the idealized women made popular by the illustrator Charles Gibson in the 1890s. "The physical type he portrayed became the standard of beauty, a romantic ideal that suggested a new independence while also celebrating the privileges and glamor of social elite" (Who Built America? 195).
John D. Rockfeller in 1895 at the opening of Alta House, a daycare center for the children of working women in Cleveland's Little Italy.
	By some economic measures, America came of age in the last part of the nineteenth century. In 1885, the industrial production of the United States surpassed that of any other nation. By 1910, industrial output in the U.S. was greater than that of England and Germany combined. Historians often refer to the last three decades of the nineteenth century as the Gilded Age, a name taken from the novel The Gilded Age co-authored by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in 1973. In the character of Mr. Dryfoos, Howells' A Hazard of New Fortunes portrays a Gilded Age figure, the newly wealthy speculator. Americans of the time were fascinated and sometimes appalled at the vast wealth accumulated by individuals such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Fisk, Morgan, and Vanderbilt. The PBS companion site to the film biography of Andrew Carnegie provides a useful summary of the age and some photographs of the mansions that sprang up during this time on Fifth Avenue in new York City.