William Dean Howells

William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was an American novelist, critic and editor, born at Martins Ferry, Ohio. He edited The Atlantic Monthly from 1871 to 1881, and championed literary realism in novels such as The Rise of Silas Lapham.

He began as a poet and, with John James Piatt, published Poems of Two Friends (1860); he continued to write occasional verse throughout his life.