SOURCE: "Brander Matthews and the Dean," in American Literary Realism 1870-1910, Vol. 21, No. 3, Spring, 1989, pp. 25-40.

In the following essay, Oliver examines the forty-year literary relationship between Matthews and William Dean Howells.

Recollecting his experiences as a member of the Saturday Club, Bliss Perry, after suggesting that William Dean Howells was never as happy in New York City as in Brahmin Cambridge, reports that the Dean complained to him in the 1890s: "No one ever drops in any more to talk about books, no one except once in a while Brander Matthews."¹ Perry continues his reminiscence without another word about Howells' book-loving visitor. Matthews in fact frequently appears on the scene in biographical and critical studies of Howells (and of other realists as well) only to disappear, as in Perry's essay, almost as soon as he arrives, most scholars apparently considering his literary relationship with Howells too insignificant...