268 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS These four years abroad determined the domestic happiness of Mr. Howells. On December 29, 1862, he was married to Miss Elinor G. Mead, of Brattleboro, Vermont The wed- ding took place in Paris. Recurring to the questions: — Was LowelPs acceptance of Recent Italian Comedy ^ in 1865, the turning-point in Howells 's life! Was the choice of a literary career made for himt We can plainly see the answers. Lowell 's recognition marks one of that poet's claims to the foremost place he then held in American letters. Had not Mr. Lowell done so, some one else, more tardily, perhaps, possibly less fortunately for the author, but as surely as real genius is appreciated in America, would have accorded him the recognition he deserved. Mr. Howells had been making the choice of his life-work by his constant association with the great masters of the world's lit- erature, by his painstaking care to learn to write, by his friendships already formed with Uving men eminent in Amer- ican Uterary centers, and by being well-prepared. A Uterary habit was his, and law, newspaper work, or anything else could not break this habit, for by his twenty-seventh year the habit had become hardened into character, and Mr. Howells was a literary man or nothing. Returning to America, for a year Mr. Howells wrote for the New York Times until he was asked to contribute solely to The Nation. In 1866, Mr. Fields, editor of the Atlantic Monthly J asked Mr. Howells to become assistant editor. Mr. Howells accepted the position at fifty dollars a week, and so, within two years of the time of his discouragement at Venice, he was in an assured position with the most august and schol- arly periodical in America. In 1872, on the retirement of Mr. Fields, he became editor of the magazine and remained in charge until 1881, when he resigned to give himself up to general literary work. Since leaving the Atlantic Monthly j Mr. Howells *8 editorial work has been limited. He conducted the department in Harper's Magazine called **The Editor's Study,'* from 1886 to 1890. In 1900, for a short time, he was editor of the Cosmo-
