William Dean Howells
Autor local de Martins Ferry, Ohio, Estados Unidos
William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, and grew up in Hamilton, Dayton and Columbus, setting type in his father's newspaper offices. A campaign biography of Lincoln earned him a consulship in Venice; he went on to edit The Atlantic Monthly and wrote more than a hundred books, including The Rise of Silas Lapham. A friend and champion of Mark Twain, Henry James and Paul Laurence Dunbar, he was called the Dean of American Letters.