Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

HOWARD PYLE: A CHRONICLE
one of his versatile genius, and which was probably due to
the long tradition of Quakerism which lay behind him. And
in spite of an active life in the material world, he was
greatly given to metaphysical and spiritual speculation. He
never lost, as long as he lived, the interest in things spiritual,
From the day when he first read Their Wedding Journey
he had been an ardent admirer of William Dean Howells,
whose novels he always read immediately on their appearance. Since Harper & Brothers were the publishers for
both men, and since both of them were frequenters of the
Franklin Square offices, they finally met. It was just after
this meeting that Howells began turning his fiction into
the channel of speculative thought, whereupon Howard
Pyle wrote him a letter congrratulating him on a more or
less philosophic story "The Shadow of a Dream," which had
just appeared in Harper's Magazine. This was the beginning of a long correspondence in which were discussed many
topics of religious and philosophic import. A few of the
letters which Howard Pyle wrote will give a very clear idea
of the doubts which troubled them.
"Wilmington, Delaware.
"April 13, 1890.
"My dear Mr. Howells:
"I have just finished reading your story'1 from a copy
of the May number of the Harper's and feel, now that I
have the pleasure of your acquaintance, that it may not be
entirely amiss for me to reach out a hand of congratulation.
"It seems to me that the most tragic element of your
story is the pathetic commonness of it all; so much agony,
so much torture, and all for the sake of the dryest of dry
"The Shadow of a Dream."
[ 1781