William Dean Howells cytaty

William Dean Howells – amerykański pisarz z nurtu realizmu i krytyk literacki.

Był drugim z ośmiorga dzieci. Jego ojciec był wydawcą gazet i drukarzem, często przemieszczającym się po stanie Ohio. Pisarz zaczynał jako urzędnik w stanowej Izbie Reprezentantów, a w 1858 roku zatrudnił się w Ohio State Journal, gdzie zamieszczał wiersze, opowiadania, krótkie tłumaczenia z francuskiego, hiszpańskiego, niemieckiego. Jego idolem był w tym czasie Heinrich Heine. W 1860 roku odwiedził Boston i poznał literackich tuzów swoich czasów: Lowella, Holmesa, Hawthorne'a, Thoreau, Emersona.

Za napisanie biografii Lincolna, przydatnej w czasie wyborów w 1860 roku, został konsulem w Wenecji. Po powrocie do kraju pisał do Atlantic Monthly i Harper's Magazine. W latach 1866-71 był zastępcą redaktora, a w latach 1871-81 redaktorem naczelnym Atlantic Monthly. Był przyjacielem Marka Twaina. Realizmem literackim zainteresował się po cyklu artykułów o życiu zwykłych Amerykanów zamieszczonym w jego piśmie przez dziennikarza Harrisona.

Pierwszą powieść opublikował w 1872 roku, ale sukcesem okazała się dopiero A Modern Instance, o rozkładzie małżeństwa, z 1882 roku. Najbardziej znana jest powieść z 1885 roku The Rise of Silas Lapham, o karierze i upadku biznesmena z branży farbiarskiej. Inne znane powieści: A Hazard of New Fortunes , A Traveler from Altruria .

Pisał także sztuki, recenzje i eseje o pisarzach-realistach z Europy, np. Zoli i Tołstoju. Wspierał w swoich artykułach młodszych pisarzy amerykańskich – Crane'a, Emily Dickinson, Sarah Orne Jewett, Franka Norrisa. Być może najbardziej pamiętany jest właśnie jako propagator realizmu w felietonach w Atlantic Monthly i Harper's.

W 1904 roku został pierwszym prezesem American Academy of Arts and Letters. Wikipedia  

✵ 1. Marzec 1837 – 11. Maj 1920
William Dean Howells Fotografia
William Dean Howells: 18   Cytatów 0   Polubień

William Dean Howells: Cytaty po angielsku

“The life of Christ, it wasn't only in healing the sick and going about to do good; it was suffering for the sins of others.”

A Hazard Of New Fortunes, Ch. XI
Kontekst: The life of Christ, it wasn't only in healing the sick and going about to do good; it was suffering for the sins of others. That's as great a mystery as the mystery of death. Why should there be such a principle in the world? But it's been felt, and more or less dumbly, blindly recognized ever since Calvary. If we love mankind, pity them, we even wish to suffer for them. That's what has created the religious orders in all times--the brotherhoods and sisterhoods that belong to our day as much as to the mediaeval past. That's what is driving a girl like Margaret Vance, who has everything that the world can offer her young beauty, on to the work of a Sister of Charity among the poor and the dying.

“That's what is driving a girl like Margaret Vance, who has everything that the world can offer her young beauty, on to the work of a Sister of Charity among the poor and the dying.”

A Hazard Of New Fortunes, Ch. XI
Kontekst: The life of Christ, it wasn't only in healing the sick and going about to do good; it was suffering for the sins of others. That's as great a mystery as the mystery of death. Why should there be such a principle in the world? But it's been felt, and more or less dumbly, blindly recognized ever since Calvary. If we love mankind, pity them, we even wish to suffer for them. That's what has created the religious orders in all times--the brotherhoods and sisterhoods that belong to our day as much as to the mediaeval past. That's what is driving a girl like Margaret Vance, who has everything that the world can offer her young beauty, on to the work of a Sister of Charity among the poor and the dying.

“The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested”

Literary Friends and Acquaintance : A Personal Retrospect of American Authorship (1900) http://archive.org/stream/oliverwendellhol03395gut/old/whowh10.txt
Kontekst: The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested, and this was, above all, the secret of the charm that Doctor Holmes had for every one. No doubt he knew it, for what that most alert intelligence did not know of itself was scarcely worth knowing. This knowledge was one of his chief pleasures, I fancy; he rejoiced in the consciousness which is one of the highest attributes of the highly organized man, and he did not care for the consequences in your mind, if you were so stupid as not to take him aright.

“If we love mankind, pity them, we even wish to suffer for them.”

A Hazard Of New Fortunes, Ch. XI
Kontekst: The life of Christ, it wasn't only in healing the sick and going about to do good; it was suffering for the sins of others. That's as great a mystery as the mystery of death. Why should there be such a principle in the world? But it's been felt, and more or less dumbly, blindly recognized ever since Calvary. If we love mankind, pity them, we even wish to suffer for them. That's what has created the religious orders in all times--the brotherhoods and sisterhoods that belong to our day as much as to the mediaeval past. That's what is driving a girl like Margaret Vance, who has everything that the world can offer her young beauty, on to the work of a Sister of Charity among the poor and the dying.

“People naturally despise a dependant.”

William Dean Howells książka A Traveler from Altruria

A Traveler from Altruria

“The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.”

Their Wedding Journey http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3365/3365.txt (1872)

“What the American public wants is a tragedy with a happy ending.”

As quoted in French Ways and Their Meaning http://www.archive.org/details/frenchwaysandthe00wharuoft (1919) by Edith Wharton, p. 65
Variant:
What the American public always wants is a tragedy with a happy ending.
As quoted in A Backward Glance http://archive.org/details/backwardglance030620mbp (1934) by Edith Wharton, p. 147

“Clemens was sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature.”

My Mark Twain http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3390/3390.txt (1910)

“He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence […]”

Pordenone http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29993/29993-h/29993-h.htm, IV (1886)