Kwn as The Dean of American Letters, William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was a realist author and literary critic best kwn for his tenure as one of the most influential editors of the Atlantic Monthly, which is still an important publication today. And though Howells is kwn mostly for his work as a literary critic, he was also a velist who wrote works like The Rise of Silas Lapham,Christmas Every Day, and much more. Along the way, he was a literary critic of the works of some of his greatest contemporaries, like Emile Zola, and he knew many American writers, including Mark Twain, Henry James, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.