Scope and Contents This collection consists of 20 letters written by the American novelist and literary critic William Dean Howells, 1837-1920.  The majority of the letters, dated between 1869 and 1888, are to James Ripley Osgood (1836-1892) the editor of the Atlantic Monthly in which Howells critiques manuscripts submitted to the magazine while he was assistant editor. In other letters to Osgood, Howells discusses his plans for and progress of his own work. In addition,...