DOCSLIB.ORG

Personal Continuums: the Autobiographical Fiction and Fictional Autobiographies of Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, and Henry Roth

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Personal Continuums: the Autobiographical Fiction and Fictional Autobiographies of Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, and Henry Roth 1 PERSONAL CONTINUUMS: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FICTION AND FICTIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF ABRAHAM CAHAN, ANZIA YEZIERSKA, AND HENRY ROTH Neil Andrew Steinberg Department of English University College London November, 1991 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of London. ProQuest Number: 10609158 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10609158 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 ABSTRACT The title of this thesis, "Personal Continuums: The Autobiographical Fiction and Fictional Autobiographies of Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, and Henry Roth", suggests that there is a significant pattern in the work of all three writers which lies in the close literary connection between their autobiographical fiction and fictional autobiographies. The phrase "personal continuum" was used by Roth to describe his attempt to regenerate himself as a writer thirty years after the publication of Call It Sleep. It is a useful expression because it describes all three writers* search for some form of continuity or connection between fiction and autobiography. Although the details vary, Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth all experienced a degree of literary success with their autobiographical novels, followed by a period of artistic silence, which they all managed to overcome by regenerating themselves as writers through highly fictionalized forms of autobiography. Aside from Chapter One, which introduces Cahan’s work and compares Cahan*s The Rise of David Levinsky to William Dean Howells’s The Rise of Silas Lapham, the chapters alternate between an analysis of each writer’s fiction and autobiographical work. The juxtaposition of chapters on Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth’s fictional work with chapters on their autobiographies has the effect of mirroring two particular autobiographical genres as well as two distinctive periods in each writer’s life. Thus, the organization of the thesis into pairs of chapters which alternate between autobiographical fiction and fictional autobiography helps to highlight the process of dialectical self-analysis which preoccupied all three writers. In Chapter Three, Chapter Five, and Chapter Seven, I treat Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth’s autobiographical narratives respectively as a continuation of their previous work, thus revealing a "personal continuum", or in other words a form of narrative continuity with their personal and literary pasts. Dedicated in loving memory to Stephen Steinberg 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my thanks to David Trotter for his continual support and advice during the research and writing of this thesis. I am also indebted to Dan Jacobson at University College London, and to Chris Bristow and John Kerrigan at Cambridge University. Many thanks to the Heinrich Hertz Stipendium for its generous financial support. This thesis would not have been possible without the help of the staff at the British Library, University of London Senate House Library, the Senkenberg and Amerikanistik Libraries in Frankfurt, the Mu gar Library at Boston University, and the Bailey/Howe Memorial Library at the University of Vermont. My special thanks go to Henry Roth for allowing me to interview him. Finally I would like to thank Ekow Nelson, my parents, and especially my wife, Maike Braun, for their unwavering support. 5 Contents A b s tra c t 2 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 6 PART I : Abraham Cahan 11 Chapter One: Onto the American Scene 12 Chapter Two: Abraham Cahan’s The Rise of David Levinsky 43 Chapter Three: Abraham Cahan’s B le te r F u n M ein L eben 77 PART I I r Anzia Yezierska 123 Chapter Four: Versions of the Self: The Fiction of Anzia Yezierska 124 Chapter Five: Anzia Yezierska’s Red Ribbon On a White Horse. My Story 162 PART III : Henry Roth 191 Chapter Six: Shifting Polarities in Henry Roth’s Call It Sleep 192 Chapter Seven: A Shifting Landscape: The Search for Continuity and Regeneration in Henry Roth’s Later Work 234 Conclusion 267 Appendix I: An Interview with Henry Roth 271 Appendix II: A Letter to the Editors of The New York Review of Books 277 Bi bliogra phy 280 6 INTRODUCTION The title of this thesis, "Personal Continuums: The Autobiographical Fiction and Fictional Autobiographies of Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, and Henry Roth", suggests that there is a significant pattern in the work of all three writers which lies in the close literary connection between their autobiographical fiction and fictional autobiographies (a term I shall define below). The phrase "personal continuum"1 was used by Roth to describe his attempt to regenerate himself as a writer thirty years after the publication of Call It Sleep. It is a useful expression because it describes all three writers* search for some form of continuity or connection between fiction and autobiography. Although the details vary, Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth all experienced a degree of literary success with their autobiographical novels, followed by a period of artistic silence, which they all managed to overcome by regenerating themselves as writers through highly fictionalized forms of autobiography. I have limited my study to these three writers since their work is, in my opinion, the most noteworthy of the first generation of Jewish-American writers in English. Like Allen Guttmann in his study, The Jewish Writer in America, I have avoided discussing the pre-1882 literature of Jewish-American writers of Sephardic or German descent, since it was the post-1882 wave of immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe which resulted in the creation of the Jewish-American community and literary tradition as we know it today.2 That Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth are all Jewish, emigrated to the United States, lived in New York’s Lower East Side, spoke Yiddish as their mother tongue, but wrote almost exclusively in English, underlines the shared literary, historical, and cultural sources of their writing. And I think that it is safe to claim that their work is representative of the literary concerns, themes, and problems of the first-generation Jewish-American writers who wrote in English. 1 Roth also used the phrase "private continuum", Shifting Landscape, p. 260. I prefer to use the phrase "personal continuum" in the title since it expresses the fact that each w riter’s "private continuum" became an a c c e s s ib le , "p erso n al continuum" when they overcame their writing block and managed to write again. 2 Allen Guttmann, The Jewish Writer In America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 12-13. 7 Aside from Chapter One, which introduces Cahan’s work and com pares Cahan’s The Rise of David Levinsky to William Dean How ells’s The Rise of Silas Lapham, the chapters alternate between an analysis of each writer’s fiction and autobiographical work. The juxtaposition of chapters on Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth’s fictional work with chapters on their autobiographies has the effect of mirroring two particular autobiographical genres as well as two distinctive periods in each writer’s life. Thus, the organization of the thesis into pairs of chapters which alternate between autobiographical fiction and fictional autobiography helps to highlight the process of dialectical self-analysis which preoccupied all three writers. It is interesting to note that just as Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth’s fiction becomes increasingly autobiographical as the twentieth century unfolds, their autobiographies become progressively more fictional. In fact Roth described his "second n o vel", Mercy of a Rude Stream, as a "mixed bag", since he uses his diaries from 1938-40 as a starting point, but then shifts into a highly fictionalized narrative— hence my use of the term "fictional autobiography". I do not want to venture that this pattern of self-discovery and regeneration through autobiographical fiction and autobiography described above is totally unique, setting the genre of first- generation Jewish-American novels and autobiographies completely apart from other twentieth century English or American writers or genres, but merely to show how the pattern develops in their individual work. Therefore, in addition to being a critical analysis of first-generation Jewish-American fiction and autobiography, this thesis is also a study of each writer’s personal literary development. What I have attempted to do is to isolate and analyze a noticeable pattern in the fiction and writing experience of Cahan, Yezierska, and Roth. I have used this pattern to illuminate both their earlier fictional and later autobiographical work, thus providing new readings of their literary works. Those readings have been informed by my perception of them as writers and individuals, rather than by any single critical approach, theoretical or otherwise. In the end, it became apparent that autobiography motivated as well as dominated their writing. However, I found it increasingly difficult to distinguish between their fictional and autobiographical work. This confusion, or rather fusion, of the two genres is built 8 into the idea of a "personal continuum", since for each writer continuity requires an overlapping of autobiographical fiction and fictional autobiography. Although the wave of Jewish immigration to the United States has been studied extensively from a sociological point of view, a thorough critical study of the literature produced by this first generation of Jewish-American writers has either been neglected or characterized by continual misinterpretation and misreading of key texts.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Urban Emergence and the Pastoral Ideal: a Study of Three Related Works by William Dean Howells
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1980 Urban emergence and the pastoral ideal: A study of three related works by William Dean Howells Robert Francis Lastowski College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Lastowski, Robert Francis, "Urban emergence and the pastoral ideal: A study of three related works by William Dean Howells" (1980). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625095. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-h7qm-4b84 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. URBAN EMERGENCE AND THE PASTORAL IDEAL: A STUDY OF THREE RELATED WORKS BY WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Rohert F. Lastowski 1980 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Author Approved, May 1980 Elsa Nettels Robert J//Scholnick Walter P. Wenska ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. Elsa Nettels, under whose guidance this essay was developed, for her patience and assis­ tance throughout the process. The author is also indebted to Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • William Dean Howells Society
    MEMBERSHIP The William Dean Howells Society To join, send your check for $10 payable Society Howells The William Dean to the William Dean Howells Society to Prof. Elsa Nettels William 211 Indian Springs Road Williamsb urg, VA 23185 Dean Name___________________________ Mailing Address___________________ Howells ________________________________ ________________________________ Society ________________________________ ________________________________ Optional Information: E-mail:__________________________ Phone: __________________________ Fax: ____________________________ Institutional Affiliation________________________ © 2005, The William Dean Howells Society Membership William Dean Howells at 75 (1912) Information http://www.howellssociety.org About W. D. Howells About the Society Howells's Principal Works William Dean Howells The William Dean Howells Society is a non- One of the most influential literary figures of 1860 Poems of Two Friends (with John J. Piatt) profit scholarly organization dedicated to the nineteenth-century America, William Dean Lives and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln study of the nineteenth-century editor, author, Howells (1837-1920) rose to prominence as edi- 1866 Venetian Life and critic W. D. Howells. tor of the Atlantic Monthly (1871-1881), becom- 1867 Italian Journeys ing one of the foremost propo- 1871 Suburban Sketches Founded by Jesse Crisler and a group of inter- nents of literary realism. 1872 Their Wedding Journey ested scholars at the ALA in 1997, the Society 1873 A Chance Acquaintance; Poems sponsors two
    [Show full text]
  • William Dean Howells Between 1900-1920
    SDÜ Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi SDU Faculty of Arts and Sciences Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Journal of Social Sciences Nisan 2015, Sayı: 34, ss.99-116 April 2014, No: 34, pp..99-116 Confronting the Modern Literary Marketplace: William Dean Howells Between 1900-1920 Işıl ÖZCAN* Modern Edebiyat Dünyası ile Yüzleşmek: 1900-1920 arası William Dean Howells ÖZET Kanonik bir Amerikan roman yazarı ve Amerikan gerçekçi edebiyatının en önemli kuramcılarından biri olmasına rağmen, William Dean Howells’la ilgili çalışmalarda yazarın son dönemi yeterince incelenmemiştir. Howells, 1900 yılında Harper’s dergisinde her ay yazmaya başlamış ve yazılarına 1920’deki ölümüne dek devam etmiştir. Howells bu yirmi yılık dönemde, edebiyat dünyasındaki değişimlerin hem sanatçı hem de edebiyat eleştirmeni üzerindeki olumsuz etkilerine maruz kalmış; reklam sektörünün edebî beğeni üzerindeki nihaî etkisini fark edip kendi sanatçı konumunu gözden geçirmiş ve durumunu “maaşa bağlanmış kazançlı kölelik” olarak betimlemiştir. İronik olan, bu dönemde, Howells’ın edebiyatçı kimliğinde oluşan bölünmenin, yazara “Amerikan Edebiyatının Dekan”ı denmeye başlanması ile daha da derinleşmesidir. Bu çalışmada Howells’ın kariyerinin son döneminde yazdığı romanları ve edebiyat eleştirileri üzerinde durulup özellikle edebiyat eleştirileri üzerinden Howells’ın yirminci yüzyılın sonunda edebiyat dünyasında meydana gelen değişimleri nasıl karşıladığı, kendi edebiyat anlayışını ve pratiğini nasıl şekillendirdiği incelenecektir. Howells’ın modern edebiyat dünyasıyla karşılaşması, hem entelektüel
    [Show full text]
  • ANALYSIS the Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) William Dean Howells
    ANALYSIS The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) William Dean Howells (1837-1920) “Novels like Silas Lapham mark a descent, a degradation. Of course art is debased when it has fallen so low into realism. Art is ever pointing upward, and the influence of true art upon man is to make him look upward, too...in the novel-writing of Mr. Howells we can already mark this scientific decadence. He began with people who were not quite commonplace, whose motives and acts and ideas were a little bit above the common. He now declares that nothing is worthy to be studied but the common feelings of common people; and having begun Silas Lapham with people who were inoffensively commonplace, he was unable to finish the book without falling a stage lower. It has seldom been our duty to read a book whose moral tone was so unpleasantly, so hopelessly bad; it is a book without heart or soul, neither illumined by religion nor warmed by human sympathy. This is all the more astonishing that Mr. Howells seems convinced that he is fulfilling a high moral purpose in writing it. It might be explicable on the theory that it was the legitimate outcome of the doctrine of total depravity; but it is more probably the logic of the downward progress of godless science.... It is the progress from man to the apes, from the apes to the worms, from the worms to bacteria, from bacteria to--mud. It is the descent to dirt.” Anonymous “Novel-Writing as a Science” The Catholic World XLII (November 1885) “The aspect of social life presented in this story is well-nigh universal; it is real, it is vital, and it is not without deep significance; in dealing with it Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Conflicts of Values Between Traditional and Modern Cultures in William Dean Howells a Modern Instance: a Sociological Approach
    CONFLICTS OF VALUES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND MODERN CULTURES IN WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS A MODERN INSTANCE: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH RESEARCH PAPER Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Getting Bachelor Degree in English Department by NIKA YULANDA A320 040 379 SCHOOL OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY OF SURAKARTA 2010 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study A Modern Instance is the third novel of William Dean Howell’s. The compilation novel book entitled William Dean Howells: Novels 1875-1886: A Foregone Conclusion, A Modern Instance, Indian Summer, The Rise of Silas Lapham (Library of America) publishing on November, 1982 by Library of America, consists of four novels, namely, A Foregone Conclusion, A Modern Instance, Indian Summer, The Rise of Silas Lapham. It consists of 1217 pages. In this book A Modern Instance is in the second order. A Modern Instance consists of 41 chapters and 415 pages. It is one of William Dean Howells novels which describes the real condition in that time. William Dean Howells is a famous novelist from realism era. He was born on first, March 1837 in Martin Ferry, Belmont Country, Ohio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dean_howells). Howells was the most productive and versatile writer of his time. His works include short stories, poems, drama, travelogues, volumes of critics and autobiography. For the last thirty years of his life he was the dominant figure in American letters. He received many honors and was chosen as the first president of the American Academy of Arts letters. His literary works are Their Wedding Journey (1872); The Lady of the Aroostook (1879); A Modern Instance (1882); The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885); The Minister's Charge (1886); A Hazard of New Fortunes (1889); The Quality of Mercy (1892); The Landlord at Lion's Head (1897).
    [Show full text]
  • The Howellsian Volume 8, Issue 1 New Series the Howellsian Spring 2005 the Howellsian
    The Howellsian Volume 8, Issue 1 New Series The Howellsian Spring 2005 The Howellsian A Message from the President Inside this issue: The Howells Society welcomes all its The Society is dedicated to aiding and From the President 1 members in its first issue of the new series expanding the work of scholars and crit- From the Editor of the Howellsian. Future issues of the ics as they continue to illuminate the newsletter will include abstracts of papers scope and depth of Howells' writings. Howells Society Activities 2 presented at conferences, short essays on recent Howells scholarship, inquiries with —Elsa Nettels, President Book excerpt:: William Dean 3 reference to Howells, and news of forth- Howells: A Writer’s Life by Susan coming meetings and publications of inter- Goodman and Carl Dawson est to Howellsians. We invite contributions Howells Sessions at ALA 5 to the newsletter, and hope to see many of you at the panels presented by the Howells Society at the meeting of the American Lit- Recent criticism on Howells 7 erature Association in Boston in May. Announcements: 8 Papers on Howells presented at the Irospects article on Howells ALA and elsewhere and recent books in which Howells figures prominently, such as those by Susan Goodman, Hildegard Hoel- ler, and Augusta Rohrbach, are compelling evidence of the importance of Howells William Dean Howells in 1907 and the richness of his work as a field In the next issue: of study. • Account of the ALA business meeting • Review of ALA panels A Message from the Editor • Announcement of officers We apologize for the and support.
    [Show full text]
  • I. Introduction
    I. Introduction This research focuses on a famous American novelist William Dean Howells'. The Rise of Silas Lapham. Being aware of the social condition, the novelist has realistically presented the social reality of late 19th century. He has merged the social facts with artistic creativity in the novel. Mr. Silas Lapham, the central character of the novel, represents the proletariat (Middle Class) of the late 19th century. He belongs to the middle class of people in the sense that he is working in his paint business. Due to the Socio-economic condition Silas Lapham is compelled to work though he does not get enough money for his labour. Instead of getting good position in the bourgeois society he has been treated as an object in relation to bourgeois people like Tom Corey's family. His human value has been turned into mere money relation in the society. Tom Corey is representing the upper class of society in the sense that the possesses a lot of means of production. Tom Corey's family treats Silas Lapham as an insignificant person because Tom Corey's family does not think of the life of lower class people. But Silas Lapham, being aware of the social condition, he wants to have a respectable status in the society. In order to upgrade himself to the desired social stratum, he works very hard. Throughout the novel, William Dean Howells has tried to present the fragmentation in the contemporary society on the basis of class. The society is divided into two different hostile camps where people are struggling to get a good socio- economic status.
    [Show full text]
  • English 743: Studies in Later American Literature “American Literary Realism”
    English 743: Studies in Later American Literature “American Literary Realism” Course Description: 1885 has been considered the annus mirabilis of American literary realism: in that year, the Century Magazine published excerpts of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn while serializing both William Dean Howells’s Rise of Silas Lapham and Henry James’s Bostonians. This seminar will focus on the era surrounding this literary landmark in order to investigate how realism, once emerging onto the scene, so quickly became a standard mode of American prose fiction. What characteristics distinguished a realist work from a non- realist one? How do local-color fiction and literary naturalism fit into the equation? We will attempt to address these questions by reading classic texts from the last three decades of the nineteenth century. Course Objectives: The main objectives of this class are 1) to investigate the characteristics, historical and ongoing, of American literary realism; 2) to track chains of intellectual and artistic influence in order to get a “feel” for America’s literary history in the period between 1865 and 1900; 3) to consider which texts from this period are most relevant to our contemporary social, intellectual, and historical moment; and 4) to develop a mature literary research methodology. Required Texts: Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, introd. John Seelye (Penguin, 2002) William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham, introd. Kermit Vanderbilt (Penguin, 1983) Henry James, The Bostonians (Penguin, 2001) George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes, introd. Michael Kreyling (Penguin, 1988) Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs (Penguin, 1996) Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, introd.
    [Show full text]
  • Realism in the Novels of William Dem Howells a Thesis
    REALISM IN THE NOVELS OF WILLIAM DEM HOWELLS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS BY BEULAH LEE JONES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ATLANTA, GEORGIA AUGUST, 1948 / l/ ii PREFACE William Dean. Howells was one of the pioneers of a literary movement in American literature known as realism. Like all pioneers, he has been highly praised and adversely criticized. It is noteworthy that these ap¬ praisals have often been made without due regard to Howells’ creed, and that many of the studies of his novels have been in the nature of compara¬ tive studies, with varied concepts of realism as criteria, rather than Howells' own doctrine of realism. Such practices in the evaluation of ones works without examining the theory that underlies them often leads to faulty criticism. Realizing this, the writer of this thesis purposes to evaluate Howells’ fictional practices in the light of his literary theory. Of the many studies made of Howells, the writer is aware of only three detailed ones. Delmar Gross Cooke, Oscar W. Firkins, and Alexander Harvey are the scholars who made these. Each of their works is entitled William Dean Howells. In most anthologies and all histories of American literature there is a discussion of Hov/ells' realism. Many contributions of this nature have been made to periodicals. However, with the exception of the study made by Russell Blankenship, ^ they all fall into the category of comparative stud¬ ies. Herein, then, lies the significance of
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 15, Numbers
    Volume 15, Number 1 (Fall 2012) The HowellsianIn This Issue: Essay “Howells, Julian Hawthorne, and the Realism War,” by Gary Scharnhorst . 2 Call for Howells Essay Prize Submissions from presenters of Howells papers at the 2012 American Literature Association Conference . 3 Essay Abstracts Papers delivered at the 2012 American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco . 4 Call for Papers for Howells Panels at the 2013 ALA Conference, Boston . 7 Minutes of the Howells Society Annual Meeting, May 2012. 8 William Dean Howells (1912, oil on canvas) by Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933). Colby College Museum of Art. Image from the-athenaeum.org. Volume 15, Number 1 (Fall 2012) The Howellsian Howells, Julian Hawthorne, “Agnosticism in American Fiction” in January 1884. He conceded that Howells and Henry James “have done more and the Realism War than all the rest of us to make our literature respectable during the last ten years,” but he added a caveat: Howells Gary Scharnhorst “does not seem, as yet, to have found a hall fit to adorn” his University of New Mexico “finely wrought tapestry.”7 After The Rise of Silas Lapham appeared in November 1885, “the romantic-idealists found On August 14, 1860, the day W. D. Howells first vis- it time to strip off their kid gloves and go to war with ited Concord, the door of the Wayside was opened to his Howells,” as Edwin H. Cady has explained,8 and Julian ral- ring by the “tall” and “handsome” thirteen-year-old son of lied if he did not rush to the frontlines. In the first review he Nathaniel Hawthorne.1 Neither of the two young men could wrote in his new job as literary editor of the New York have guessed the extent to which their paths would cross World in June 1886, he tried to call a truce: “the antago- over the next half-century.
    [Show full text]
  • The Howellsian Includes: (1) an Account Message from the Editor
    Volume 11, Numbers 1 & 2 (Spring/Fall 2008) Table of Contents A Message from the Editor Among other items, this double-issue of The Howellsian includes: (1) an account Message from the Editor......................................................1 of the two panels we hosted at the ALA this year; (2) information about the Howells TheEditor Sought for The Howellsian ..................................... Howellsian1 Fellowship at the Houghton Library; (3) an invitation for members to subscribe to the Update on the Howells Fellowship at the Houghton Library, Harvard University ............................1 Howells Listserv; (4) a call for applica- tions for the position of editor of The Join the Howells Listserv .....................................................1 William Dean Howells Howellsian; and (5) a call for papers for W.D. Howells Business Meeting .........................................2 Society Prize Essay the 2009 ALA Conference in Boston.The 2008 American Literature Association The William Dean Howells Society Es- National Conference .............................................................3 next issue (Vol. 12, No. 1, N.S.) of The Howellsian will be published in spring say Prize will be awarded at the 2009 ALA The Cowhiding in The Kentons: conference to Dr. Lance Rubin for his paper, Late Howells and the 2009. Domestic Histories of Violence ..........................................3 —Rob Davidson, Interim Editor “Consumption and Cannibalism in the Al- trurian Romances of William Dean Howells.” Smiling Aspects: Howells
    [Show full text]
  • The Howellsian, Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2007) Page 1
    The Howellsian, Volume 10, Number 2 (Fall 2007) Page 1 New Series Volume 10, Number 2 Fall 2007 The Howellsian A Message from the Editor Inside this issue: It is a typically unseasonable October and preparations for the 2008 ALA conference have already begun. Two sessions, ar- ranged by Rob Davidson, will be held: “The International Howells,” and “The Domestic Howells.” Included in this issue are the calls for 1 From the Editor papers. Among other items, this issue of the Howellsian includes (1) WDHS Events at ALA 2 the presentation of the second annual prize for best paper presented 2007: “A Banner Weekend in Boston” by Sanford at the ALA conference (2) a reprint of prize-winning essay, by Freder- Marovitz ick Wegener (3) an account of the Kittery Point excursion to the Howells Memorial Home (4) an essay by Riccarda Saggese on 3 Minutes from the WDHS Howells’ Venetian Life (5) abstracts of papers delivered at the 2007 Business Meeting ALA conference Howells sessions. William Dean Howells in 1907 The next issue (Vol. 11, No. 1, N.S.) of The Howellsian will be Howells Prize Essay: 4 “Marriage and the Ameri- published in spring 2008. can Medical Woman in Dr. —Alex Feerst, Editor Breen’s Practice ” by Freder- ick Wegener Howells Memorial House 9 Call for Papers: Howells Panels at ALA 2008 in San Francisco in Danger of Being Sold The William Dean Howells society will sponsor two panels at the 2008 American Literature Venetian Nights, 10 Review of Association conference in San Francisco on May 22-25, 2008.
    [Show full text]