“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

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Do you have more details about the quote "What the American public wants is a tragedy with a happy ending." by William Dean Howells?
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William Dean Howells 18
author, critic and playwright from the United States 1837–1920

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