"Nothing he ever wrote can be more tender than the reminiscences of this year spent in a log cabin somewhere in Ohio." -Book News Monthly, 1894
" Beside the perennial charm of Mr. Howells' style, it has the fascination inherent in all such self-revelation from a writer one knows and loves." - The Literary World, 1893
In his 1893 book "My Year in a Log Cabin" William Dean Howells gives another fragment of his early life. The log-cabin was situated on the Miami River, and Mr. Howells' father went there to take charge of a saw-mill and grist-mill for his brothers, who intended to start a paper-mill. All this happened in 1850, and so Mr. Howells came to have some experience of all the interesting features of the nowforgotten frontier life, even then beginning to give way before advancing civilization.
The incidents are commonplaces, the country pigs and geese, squirrel shooting, the feigned lameness by which mother quail and mother ducks divert harm from their young, imaginary ghosts, and imaginary Indians. Yet Mr. Howells' style is, as always, far from commonplace. His skillful telling gives these incidents the charm of art. No better evidence could be offered of the genuine sympathy, humor and pathos, with which he makes his most literal transcripts from life.
About the author:
William Dean Howells (1837 –1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as well as for his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria.
Other works by the author include:
• Modern Italian Poets
• Venetian Life
• Italian Journeys
• Suburban Sketches
• Their Wedding Journey
• A Chance Acquaintance
• A Foregone Conclusion
• A Day's Pleasure
• The Parlor Car
• A Counterfeit Presentment
• Out of the Question
• The Lady of The Aroostook
• The Undiscovered Country
• A Modern Instance
• A Fearful Responsibility
• Dr. Breen's Practice
• A Day's Pleasure
• Out of the Question
• A Woman's Reason
• The Sleeping Car
• Niagara Revisited
• Three Villages
• The Register
• Tuscan Cities
• The Rise of Silas Lapham
• A Sea-Change, or, Love's Stowaway
• The Elevator: A Farce
• Indian Summer
• The Garroters
• The Minister's Charge
• Modern Italian Poets
• April Hopes
• A Sea-Change
• The Mouse-Trap
• Annie Kilburn
• A Hazard of New Fortunes
• The Shadow of a Dream
• A Boy's Town
• An Imperative Duty
• The Quality of Mercy
• The Albany Depot
• A Little Swiss Sojourn
• A Letter of Introduction
• The World of Chance
• The Unexpected Guest
• My Year in a Log Cabin
• Christmas Every Day
• The Coast of Bohemia
• Evening Dress
• A Traveler from Altruria
• My Literary Passions
• Stops of Various Quills
• A Parting and a Meeting
• Impressions and Experiences
• Stories of Ohio
• The Landlord At Lion's Head
