SOURCE: Ratner, Marc L. “Howells and Boyesen: Two Views of Realism.”¹ New England Quarterly 35, no. 3 (1962): 376-90.

In the following excerpt, Ratner explores William Dean Howells influence, as mentor and editor, on Boyesen's literature and criticism.

When regarding the growth and development of American letters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries one is struck with the influential rôle of William Dean Howells. In fact, his significance as a critic and novelist has been too much taken for granted by critics of nineteenth-century America. As a critic, Howells encouraged realistic fiction in America by supporting writers such as Twain, James, Garland, De Forest, and Crane and by acting as a liaison between the contemporary currents of European literature and the realistic movement in American letters.

Howells had a widespread interest in European literature and in the philosophical movements behind much of Europe's fiction. Some of his knowledge...