WD Howells was 23 in August 1860 when he traveled from the forests of frontier Ohio to New England to glimpse where his literary idols lived and worked. A junior editor in Columbus, Howells achieved notoriety from writing a campaign biography for Abraham Lincoln, the Republican party’s candidate for president.  The 170-page profile was mostly a collection of Lincoln speeches that introduced the Illinois lawyer to … Continue reading Literary New England and Its Satanic Mills