+Robert Cortes Holliday ("Murray Hill")+--essayist, critic. Born at Indianapolis, 1880. Studied at the Art Students' League, New York, 1899-1902, and at the University of; Kansas, 1903-4. Illustrator for magazines, 1904-5. Bookseller with Scribner's, 1906-11. Librarian, 1912-3. Held various editorial positions with New York publishers, 1913-8. Associate editor of _The Bookman_, 1918, and editor, 1919--. BIBLIOGRAPHY Booth Tarkington. 1918. The Walking Stick Papers. 1918. Joyce Kilmer, A Memoir. 1918. Peeps at People. 1919. Broome Street Straws. 1919. Men and Books and Cities. 1920. Turns about Town. 1921. STUDIES AND REVIEWS Bookm. 47 ('18): 149 (portrait); 48 ('18): 478. Dial, 64 ('18): 297; 65 ('18): 419. See also _Book Review Digest_, 1918-21. +William Dean Howells+--novelist, dramatist, critic, poet. Born at Martins Ferry, Ohio, 1837. Of Welsh, English, Pennsylvania Dutch, and Irish ancestry. His father was a country editor, and Mr. Howells, living as he did under pioneer conditions, had very little formal education, but educated himself in working on newspapers as printer, correspondent, and editor. He read continually in boyhood, and taught himself to read six languages. As the result of a campaign life of Lincoln, he was appointed U.S. consul at Venice and lived there, 1861-5. After a year on the staff of the _Nation_, he became assistant editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_, 1866-72, and editor, 1872-81. Later, he became an editorial writer for _Harper's Magazine_, 1886-91, and finally writer of the "Editor's Easy Chair," for the same magazine. Although Mr. Howells did not go to college, he received many honorary higher degrees, and was offered professorships by three Universities (including that which had been held by Longfellow and Lowell at Harvard); but he refused these, not considering himself fitted for such work. In his editorial capacity he gave much advice and help to authors who afterward became famous. He died in 1920. SUGGESTIONS FOR READING 1. For just appraisement of Mr. Howells, it is necessary to be familiar with the facts of his life, and with his theories of fiction. For his life the two autobiographical books _Years of My Youth_ and _My Literary Passions_ are most valuable. After reading these, it is possible to see the large use of autobiographical material in the novels. 2. It is interesting to group the books of Howells according to the sources of the material: (1) those growing out of his early life in Ohio; (2) those growing out of his life abroad; (3) those growing out of his life in Boston and New York. This last class might well be subdivided into those written before he came under the influence of Tolstoi and those written after. The turning-point is in _A Hazard of New Fortunes_. Does Mr. Howells's interest in sociological problems add to or lessen the final value of his work?