Diplomats who were authors: William Dean Howells as the Civil War Consul in Venice.

AuthorSommers, William

During a recent visit with my daughter in Cambridge, Mass., we walked around the neighborhood and came upon a wonderfully reconstructed large and appealing house on Sacramento Street. We found that it was the long ago residence of William Dean Howells who lived there from 1873 to 1878, reflecting his substantial contribution to the development of American literature for years and years to come. But it also recalled the detail of Howells' surprising work many years ago as U.S. Consul in Venice which, in a way, was also the beginning of his long term work on American literature.

William Dean Howells, who served as U.S. Consul to Venice from 1861 to 1865, was born in Martinsville, OH, in 1837. Largely self-educated, he roamed about Ohio as odd-job man, sometime-poet and newspaper reporter. At age 23, being in good graces with the Ohio Republican organization, he was asked to write a political biography for the soon-to-be-nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. Howells set about with vigor and, in a few months, produced what the party found to be a most acceptable biography which became a modest best-seller. After Lincoln's election Howells, in concert with some powerful Ohio political friends, began to look for a "suitable position" in the federal establishment. Like writers before him--and since--he hoped to find employment that would provide him sustenance, and a work schedule with enough leisure time for his literary aims.

The writing of a successful political biography of a man who subsequently became President of the United States called for a reward. There were distinguished precedents. Howells recorded that expectation in his memoirs by noting that "It seemed to be the universal feeling, after the election of Lincoln, that I, who had written his life, ought to have a consulate, as had happened with Hawthorne, who had written the life of Franklin Pierce." The first attempts via the mail were not successful. He was chided in a return letter from John Hay, the President's secretary, that "... it is easier to predict the destination of a thunderbolt than of an office."

Rome: A pittance

Howells had asked for Munich, hoping that he could improve his German and steep himself in German poetry. After much delay, he received an assignment to Rome. When he was told that the salary depended on the fees collected and that Rome was no plum, Howells decided to find out for himself. In Washington, the Department's consular chief told him that, indeed, Rome would yield no more than $300 per year. But Howells had the active backing of Hay and Nicolay, close counselors of the President's. With their help--and influence--he got the consulship to Venice, where the salary was--at Hay's insistence--raised to $1,500 a year.

This being settled, the two young men asked Howells if he had ever met the President. Howells replied that he had not, and Hay said they would try to arrange an interview for the next day. Howells, upon leaving their offices, was surprised to meet Lincoln ... in the corridor, and he looked at the space I was part of with his ineffably melancholic eyes, without knowing that I was the indistinguishable person in whose integrity and abilities he had reposed such a special confidence as to have appointed him consul to Venice. He walked up to the water cooler that stood in the corner, and drew himself a full goblet from it, which he poured down his throat with a backward tilt of his head, and then went wearily within doors. The whole affair, so simple, has always remained of a certain pathos in my memory, and I would rather have seen Lincoln in that unconscious moment than on some statelier occasion."

Howells went back to Ohio...

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