Materials and Form in Howells's First Novels

Abstract

HOWELLS SERIALIZED his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in the Atlantic Monthly from July to December and published it in volume form December 27, I87I. But the thirtyfour year old ex-printer and reporter, by this time editor of the Atlantic, had also written nearly eight hundred poems, editorials, reviews, short stories, travel sketches, and columns of social comment for Ohio, Boston, and New York periodicals before writing his first novel. This mass of little-known newspaper and magazine material dating from I852, when he first published a poem, forms rather staggering proof of his youthful industry and literary passion. It is of definite interest biographically. portion of these apprentice writings, moreover-the portion to be dealt with here-reveals much about Howells's choice of materials and his method of giving them form in his first three novels, Chance Acquaintance, Foregone Conclusion., and particularly Their Wedding Journey.' Political controversy, anti-slavery argument, and intense proUnion feeling filled Howells's writing during the fifties and the late sixties after he returned from his Venice consulship. Such early stories as Independent Candidate, and A Tale of Love and Politics2 suggest the strong political biases of Howells's father and of the family newspaper, the Ashtabula Sentinel. The prewar columns, Letter from Columbus in the Cincinnati Gazette and News and Humors of the Mails in the Ohio State Journal, are full of union and anti-slavery sentiment and argument, and fre-