E. W. (Edgar Watson) Howe

Born in 1853, Edgar Watson Howe was an American novelist, editor, and journalist whose career grew out of newspaper work in the American West and Midwest. He began publishing newspapers in Colorado and Nebraska before settling in Atchison, Kansas, where he became closely associated with the Atchison Globe. His reputation spread beyond Kansas thanks to his lively editorial voice and his talent for turning ordinary local experience into memorable writing.

Howe is most often linked with The Story of a Country Town (1883), a novel that earned lasting attention for its realistic picture of small-town life. He later wrote other fiction and nonfiction, including opinion pieces and reflections on society that showed the same dry humor and skeptical edge found in his journalism. Over time, he became known as a distinctive regional voice who could be both entertaining and unsentimental.

He remained a prominent literary and newspaper figure for decades and died in 1937. Today he is remembered as a writer who moved easily between reporting, commentary, and fiction, bringing a clear, direct style to each of them.