E. W. Howe was born in 1853 in Wabash county, Indiana, in a community now known as Treaty. The son of Henry and Elizabeth (Irwin) Howe.
Howe went to work at age seven on his father's homestead near Bethany, Mo. An apprentice printer at 12, he worked at the trade in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah (1867–72).
He is known to have begun his journalistic career as far back as March 22, 1873, when as a 19-year-old he came to Golden, Colorado, from Platte City, Nebraska, and partnered with William F. Dorsey to acquire the Golden Eagle newspaper. Renaming it the Golden Globe, it was the second main newspaper of Golden and served a Republican readership and political bent. Howe, who took over complete ownership by the end of the year, quickly gained a sharp-witted editorial reputation in the community that would preview his national fame.
Within a couple of years Howe sold the Globe to his brother A.J. Howe and partner William Grover Smith, and moved to Falls City, Nebraska in 1875, where he established a new Globe newspaper, affectionately called the "Little Globe". In 1875 he merged this with the Nemaha Valley Journal and it became the Globe-Journal.
In 1877 Howe established and edited the Atchison, Kansas, newspaper Globe (Atchison Daily Globe), which he continued for twenty-five years, retiring in 1911. Having been raised Methodist, he described himself as identifying with Methodism but is essentially a cultural Christian, according to his writing. Howe's most famous novel is The Story of a Country Town. A 1919 edition of his Ventures in Common Sense featured a foreword by celebrated American writer (and cynic) H. L. Mencken.
In 1928, his autobiography, Plain People, was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. It was later published in book form.
Some of his works:
The Story of a Country Town (1883)
The Mystery of the Locks (1885)
The Moonlight Boy (1900)
Daily Notes of a Trip Around the World
The Trip to the West Indies
Country Town Sayings: A collection of paragraphs from the Atchison Globe (1911)
resources: Wikipedia and Britannica
Encyclopedia of World Biography on Edgar Watson Howe:
Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937), American author and editor, wrote realistic regional and romantic novels and coined widely circulated aphorisms.
Edgar Howe was born on May 3, 1853, in Wabash County, Ind. He acquired much of his education while learning and practicing the printer's trade, and he eventually became a journalist.
Howe was editor and proprietor of the Atchison (Kans.) Daily Globe (1877-1911) when he wrote his first and most famous novel, The Story of a Country Town (1883). Harshly realistic, it portrayed, in a rather colorless but easygoing style, the hopeless lives of men and women in two midwestern prairie towns. Unable to place his novel with any publishing house, Howe ran it off in his own printshop. It was a great success. It was praised by such prominent contemporary writers as William Dean Howells and Mark Twain, and years later it was rediscovered and hailed as a classic. Later Howe turned from realism to romance in The Mystery of the Locks (1885) and The Moonlight Boy (1886), which were less successful.
A character in Howe's first novel observes, "A man with a brain large enough to understand mankind, is always wretched, and ashamed of himself." This shrewd and disillusioned comment was typical of Howe, who was known as "the Sage of Potato Hill." He won fame as a commonsense coiner of curdled aphorisms. His domestic life may well have helped sour him; in 1873 he married Clara L. Frank, but his home life was "wretchedly unhappy." In 1901 he was divorced and never remarried. E. W. Howe's Monthly, which he edited between 1911 and 1937, contained many of his bitter observations. Books in which these were collected include Country Town Sayings (1911), The Blessings of Business (1918), Ventures in Common Sense (1919), and The Anthology of Another Town (1920). Howe's two sons became successful journalists, and his daughter became a successful novelist. One of Howe's great admirers was H. L. Mencken, himself skilled in creating cynical aphorisms. Howe died in Atchison on Oct. 3, 1937.
Howe went to work at age seven on his father's homestead near Bethany, Mo. An apprentice printer at 12, he worked at the trade in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah (1867–72).
He is known to have begun his journalistic career as far back as March 22, 1873, when as a 19-year-old he came to Golden, Colorado, from Platte City, Nebraska, and partnered with William F. Dorsey to acquire the Golden Eagle newspaper. Renaming it the Golden Globe, it was the second main newspaper of Golden and served a Republican readership and political bent. Howe, who took over complete ownership by the end of the year, quickly gained a sharp-witted editorial reputation in the community that would preview his national fame.
Within a couple of years Howe sold the Globe to his brother A.J. Howe and partner William Grover Smith, and moved to Falls City, Nebraska in 1875, where he established a new Globe newspaper, affectionately called the "Little Globe". In 1875 he merged this with the Nemaha Valley Journal and it became the Globe-Journal.
In 1877 Howe established and edited the Atchison, Kansas, newspaper Globe (Atchison Daily Globe), which he continued for twenty-five years, retiring in 1911. Having been raised Methodist, he described himself as identifying with Methodism but is essentially a cultural Christian, according to his writing. Howe's most famous novel is The Story of a Country Town. A 1919 edition of his Ventures in Common Sense featured a foreword by celebrated American writer (and cynic) H. L. Mencken.
In 1928, his autobiography, Plain People, was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. It was later published in book form.
Some of his works:
The Story of a Country Town (1883)
The Mystery of the Locks (1885)
The Moonlight Boy (1900)
Daily Notes of a Trip Around the World
The Trip to the West Indies
Country Town Sayings: A collection of paragraphs from the Atchison Globe (1911)
resources: Wikipedia and Britannica
Encyclopedia of World Biography on Edgar Watson Howe:
Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937), American author and editor, wrote realistic regional and romantic novels and coined widely circulated aphorisms.
Edgar Howe was born on May 3, 1853, in Wabash County, Ind. He acquired much of his education while learning and practicing the printer's trade, and he eventually became a journalist.
Howe was editor and proprietor of the Atchison (Kans.) Daily Globe (1877-1911) when he wrote his first and most famous novel, The Story of a Country Town (1883). Harshly realistic, it portrayed, in a rather colorless but easygoing style, the hopeless lives of men and women in two midwestern prairie towns. Unable to place his novel with any publishing house, Howe ran it off in his own printshop. It was a great success. It was praised by such prominent contemporary writers as William Dean Howells and Mark Twain, and years later it was rediscovered and hailed as a classic. Later Howe turned from realism to romance in The Mystery of the Locks (1885) and The Moonlight Boy (1886), which were less successful.
A character in Howe's first novel observes, "A man with a brain large enough to understand mankind, is always wretched, and ashamed of himself." This shrewd and disillusioned comment was typical of Howe, who was known as "the Sage of Potato Hill." He won fame as a commonsense coiner of curdled aphorisms. His domestic life may well have helped sour him; in 1873 he married Clara L. Frank, but his home life was "wretchedly unhappy." In 1901 he was divorced and never remarried. E. W. Howe's Monthly, which he edited between 1911 and 1937, contained many of his bitter observations. Books in which these were collected include Country Town Sayings (1911), The Blessings of Business (1918), Ventures in Common Sense (1919), and The Anthology of Another Town (1920). Howe's two sons became successful journalists, and his daughter became a successful novelist. One of Howe's great admirers was H. L. Mencken, himself skilled in creating cynical aphorisms. Howe died in Atchison on Oct. 3, 1937.
E. W. Howe was born in 1853 in Wabash county, Indiana, in a community now known as Treaty. The son of Henry and Elizabeth (Irwin) Howe.
Howe went to work at age seven on his father's homestead near Bethany, Mo. An apprentice printer at 12, he worked at the trade in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah (1867–72).
He is known to have begun his journalistic career as far back as March 22, 1873, when as a 19-year-old he came to Golden, Colorado, from Platte City, Nebraska, and partnered with William F. Dorsey to acquire the Golden Eagle newspaper. Renaming it the Golden Globe, it was the second main newspaper of Golden and served a Republican readership and political bent. Howe, who took over complete ownership by the end of the year, quickly gained a sharp-witted editorial reputation in the community that would preview his national fame.
Within a couple of years Howe sold the Globe to his brother A.J. Howe and partner William Grover Smith, and moved to Falls City, Nebraska in 1875, where he established a new Globe newspaper, affectionately called the "Little Globe". In 1875 he merged this with the Nemaha Valley Journal and it became the Globe-Journal.
In 1877 Howe established and edited the Atchison, Kansas, newspaper Globe (Atchison Daily Globe), which he continued for twenty-five years, retiring in 1911. Having been raised Methodist, he described himself as identifying with Methodism but is essentially a cultural Christian, according to his writing. Howe's most famous novel is The Story of a Country Town. A 1919 edition of his Ventures in Common Sense featured a foreword by celebrated American writer (and cynic) H. L. Mencken.
In 1928, his autobiography, Plain People, was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. It was later published in book form.
Some of his works:
The Story of a Country Town (1883)
The Mystery of the Locks (1885)
The Moonlight Boy (1900)
Daily Notes of a Trip Around the World
The Trip to the West Indies
Country Town Sayings: A collection of paragraphs from the Atchison Globe (1911)
resources: Wikipedia and Britannica
Encyclopedia of World Biography on Edgar Watson Howe:
Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937), American author and editor, wrote realistic regional and romantic novels and coined widely circulated aphorisms.
Edgar Howe was born on May 3, 1853, in Wabash County, Ind. He acquired much of his education while learning and practicing the printer's trade, and he eventually became a journalist.
Howe was editor and proprietor of the Atchison (Kans.) Daily Globe (1877-1911) when he wrote his first and most famous novel, The Story of a Country Town (1883). Harshly realistic, it portrayed, in a rather colorless but easygoing style, the hopeless lives of men and women in two midwestern prairie towns. Unable to place his novel with any publishing house, Howe ran it off in his own printshop. It was a great success. It was praised by such prominent contemporary writers as William Dean Howells and Mark Twain, and years later it was rediscovered and hailed as a classic. Later Howe turned from realism to romance in The Mystery of the Locks (1885) and The Moonlight Boy (1886), which were less successful.
A character in Howe's first novel observes, "A man with a brain large enough to understand mankind, is always wretched, and ashamed of himself." This shrewd and disillusioned comment was typical of Howe, who was known as "the Sage of Potato Hill." He won fame as a commonsense coiner of curdled aphorisms. His domestic life may well have helped sour him; in 1873 he married Clara L. Frank, but his home life was "wretchedly unhappy." In 1901 he was divorced and never remarried. E. W. Howe's Monthly, which he edited between 1911 and 1937, contained many of his bitter observations. Books in which these were collected include Country Town Sayings (1911), The Blessings of Business (1918), Ventures in Common Sense (1919), and The Anthology of Another Town (1920). Howe's two sons became successful journalists, and his daughter became a successful novelist. One of Howe's great admirers was H. L. Mencken, himself skilled in creating cynical aphorisms. Howe died in Atchison on Oct. 3, 1937.
Howe went to work at age seven on his father's homestead near Bethany, Mo. An apprentice printer at 12, he worked at the trade in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah (1867–72).
He is known to have begun his journalistic career as far back as March 22, 1873, when as a 19-year-old he came to Golden, Colorado, from Platte City, Nebraska, and partnered with William F. Dorsey to acquire the Golden Eagle newspaper. Renaming it the Golden Globe, it was the second main newspaper of Golden and served a Republican readership and political bent. Howe, who took over complete ownership by the end of the year, quickly gained a sharp-witted editorial reputation in the community that would preview his national fame.
Within a couple of years Howe sold the Globe to his brother A.J. Howe and partner William Grover Smith, and moved to Falls City, Nebraska in 1875, where he established a new Globe newspaper, affectionately called the "Little Globe". In 1875 he merged this with the Nemaha Valley Journal and it became the Globe-Journal.
In 1877 Howe established and edited the Atchison, Kansas, newspaper Globe (Atchison Daily Globe), which he continued for twenty-five years, retiring in 1911. Having been raised Methodist, he described himself as identifying with Methodism but is essentially a cultural Christian, according to his writing. Howe's most famous novel is The Story of a Country Town. A 1919 edition of his Ventures in Common Sense featured a foreword by celebrated American writer (and cynic) H. L. Mencken.
In 1928, his autobiography, Plain People, was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post. It was later published in book form.
Some of his works:
The Story of a Country Town (1883)
The Mystery of the Locks (1885)
The Moonlight Boy (1900)
Daily Notes of a Trip Around the World
The Trip to the West Indies
Country Town Sayings: A collection of paragraphs from the Atchison Globe (1911)
resources: Wikipedia and Britannica
Encyclopedia of World Biography on Edgar Watson Howe:
Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937), American author and editor, wrote realistic regional and romantic novels and coined widely circulated aphorisms.
Edgar Howe was born on May 3, 1853, in Wabash County, Ind. He acquired much of his education while learning and practicing the printer's trade, and he eventually became a journalist.
Howe was editor and proprietor of the Atchison (Kans.) Daily Globe (1877-1911) when he wrote his first and most famous novel, The Story of a Country Town (1883). Harshly realistic, it portrayed, in a rather colorless but easygoing style, the hopeless lives of men and women in two midwestern prairie towns. Unable to place his novel with any publishing house, Howe ran it off in his own printshop. It was a great success. It was praised by such prominent contemporary writers as William Dean Howells and Mark Twain, and years later it was rediscovered and hailed as a classic. Later Howe turned from realism to romance in The Mystery of the Locks (1885) and The Moonlight Boy (1886), which were less successful.
A character in Howe's first novel observes, "A man with a brain large enough to understand mankind, is always wretched, and ashamed of himself." This shrewd and disillusioned comment was typical of Howe, who was known as "the Sage of Potato Hill." He won fame as a commonsense coiner of curdled aphorisms. His domestic life may well have helped sour him; in 1873 he married Clara L. Frank, but his home life was "wretchedly unhappy." In 1901 he was divorced and never remarried. E. W. Howe's Monthly, which he edited between 1911 and 1937, contained many of his bitter observations. Books in which these were collected include Country Town Sayings (1911), The Blessings of Business (1918), Ventures in Common Sense (1919), and The Anthology of Another Town (1920). Howe's two sons became successful journalists, and his daughter became a successful novelist. One of Howe's great admirers was H. L. Mencken, himself skilled in creating cynical aphorisms. Howe died in Atchison on Oct. 3, 1937.
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