Years of My Youth
1916
William Dean Howells was the most influential American literary figure of his era, the friend Mark Twain called "the Dean," the architect of American realism who shaped an entire national literature. This memoir is the origin story of that vision. Written near the end of his life but reaching back to his earliest memories, Howells reconstructs his boyhood in Martin's Ferry, Ohio, in the decades before the Civil War. He writes about his parents' lineage, the rhythms of small-town life, and the vast social and economic transformations reshaping America during his youth. But this is not mere nostalgia. Howells subtly examines how a person becomes themselves: which memories calcify into identity, which places and people leave permanent imprints on the imagination. His prose moves with quiet deliberation, allowing space for the reader to feel the distance between then and now, between the child who experienced these moments and the old man reconstructing them. For anyone curious about where American literature came from, or anyone who has ever tried to understand how the people and places of childhood continue to shape a life decades after they've passed from view, this memoir offers something rare: the chance to watch a master writer make sense of his own formation.
Editions
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/years-of-my-youth-35776f63-a08a-4f8b-8ffe-11817cc2d646"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Years of My Youth by William Dean Howells free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/years-of-my-youth-35776f63-a08a-4f8b-8ffe-11817cc2d646)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/years-of-my-youth-35776f63-a08a-4f8b-8ffe-11817cc2d646][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Years of My Youth by William Dean Howells free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/years-of-my-youth-35776f63-a08a-4f8b-8ffe-11817cc2d646Cite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Howells, William Dean. Years of My Youth. Lex, lex-books.com/book/years-of-my-youth-35776f63-a08a-4f8b-8ffe-11817cc2d646.Howells, W. D. (1916). Years of My Youth. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/years-of-my-youth-35776f63-a08a-4f8b-8ffe-11817cc2d646Howells, William Dean. Years of My Youth. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/years-of-my-youth-35776f63-a08a-4f8b-8ffe-11817cc2d646.
