Blanche Willis Howard

Blanche Willis Howard (July 20, 1847 – October 7, 1898) (married name: Blanche Willis Howard von Teuffel) was an American writer whose novels developed out of the genre of Sentimentalism to Realism to the New Woman. Her first novel, One Summer, and subsequent novels received critical praise. Howard lived most of her productive years in Stuttgart, Germany. She died in Munich, Germany, after a short illness.

Early years

Howard was born and raised in Bangor, Maine. Her father was in the insurance industry and her mother came from a mercantile family. She had three siblings. After graduating from Bangor High School, she boarded at a New York City school where she developed her musical talents. She then lived for a year in Chicago with her sister Marion Howard Smith, who was married to Benjamin Fuller Smith, a son of former Maine Governor Samuel E. Smith.

Career

Howard gained success with her first novel, One Summer (Boston, 1875), set in the coastal town Edgecomb, Maine, which is located near Wiscasset, Maine, the home of her married sister Marion's family. An 1877 edition of One Summer was illustrated by Augustus Hoppin. The publisher of One Summer was James R. Osgood, who began his career with Ticknor and Fields and later was in partnership with Henry Houghton. Osgood would be her most important publishing contact for much of her career.

Following publication of One Summer, Howard went to Europe, having received an assignment from the Boston Evening Transcript for a series of articles. Her articles were subsequently published as the travel book One Year Abroad (Boston, 1877).