Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 1251

William Dean Howells letters to Mildred Howells

Overview

Letters from the American novelist William Dean Howells to his daughter Mildred Howells.

Dates

  • Creation: 1894-1919

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.

Extent

1 linear feet (2 boxes)

Collection consists of letters written from William Dean Howell to his daughter Mildred. Letters discuss Mildred's travels in Europe and Bermuda, travel from Paris to New York City, language lessons in France, life in Kittery Point, Maine, and life in New York and what plays they have seen on Broadway. William also write extensively about Mildred's writing, including comments and critiques of poetry, getting the poems published in Scribner's and Harper's Bazaar, and settling financial matters with these publishing companies. William also writes of his finances, decorating and selling apartments in New York, personal finance and retirement, Mildred's garden in Maine, getting Mildred's wisdom teeth removed and author Bjornson.

Biographical / Historical

William Dean Howells was a novelist and man of letters. He served as United States consul in Venice (1861-1865) as well as editor of The Atlantic Monthly (1871-1881) and of Cosmopolitan (1891-1892).

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically

Immediate Source of Acquisition

51M-236. Deposited by Miss Mildred Howells, 63 Pine Street, Peterborough New Hampshire; received: 1952 May 29.

Title
Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. William Dean Howells letters to Mildred Howells, 1894-1919: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01263

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440