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
Howells read and approved both, and when he was editor
of the Cosmopolitan he accepted the second for that publication. These stories form a fitting counterpart to Stops of
Various Quills; they are expressive of the same pessimism,
but, combine a little more realism with their mystic qualities.
But the greatest achievement which was the direct result
of Howells's influence was the writing of the novel Rejected of Men, which was not published until nine years
after it had been begun, but which was continually rewritten
and revised during the intervening time. The scene of this
novel was modern New York, but the plot was that of the
influence and crucifixion of Christ, the whole transported
with all its details from ancient Palestine to the contemporary
American city. Everything about the story was modernized,
but the outlines of the plot were rigidly kept j ust as they
are in the Bible. When Howells read it for the first time,
in April, 1 895, he was immensely pleased with it, and
praised it without stint. At the same time, however, he was
afraid that no magazine would dare print it.
Alden had read it during the preceding year, when it was
in a much less finished state than 'it was when Howells
found it so stirring. Alden wrote on July 20, 18 94:
"Much as I admire this story for certain things, I must
confess frankly that it jars upon some sacred inviolable
sense of the Christ and in some passages-especially the
electrocution-is a profound shock. I appreciate your intention, and grant that you have successfully made your
point. I cannot feel, however, that the motif justifies the
wrench involved in the translation of the divine drama from
its oriental environment, from the Syrian sky and the Sea
of Galilee (where nature becomes so essential a part of this
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