Edgar Watson Howe (May 3, 1853 – October 3, 1937), was an American novelist and newspaper and magazine editor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was perhaps best known for his magazine, E.W. Howe's Monthly, which he wrote from 1911 to 1933. Howe was well traveled and known for his sharp wit in his editorials.
Personal life
Howe was born May 3, 1853, in Wabash County, Indiana, in a community now known as Treaty. His father was Henry Howe, a farmer and Methodist circuit rider, and his mother Elizabeth (Irwin) Howe. Howe spent most of his childhood in Harrison County, Missouri, where his family moved when he was 3, first to Fairview, and then to Bethany around 1864.
Howe's father was a vocal abolitionist, opposing slavery on religious grounds. When the Civil War broke out, Henry Howe joined to fight for the Union. Returning to Missouri before the end of the war, he purchased a newspaper in Bethany and informed his family of his intention of using it to advocate his cause.
In 1870, while working at the Nemaha Valley Journal in Falls City, Nebraska, Edgar met Clara Frank. They were married in 1875, when Howe returned to Nebraska from Colorado. Howe had five children with Clara. Two of their children, Bessie and Ned, died young within a few days of each other in 1878. Two sons, James and Gene, eventually followed Howe into the news business, and daughter Mateel Howe Farnham became a novelist. Howe and Clara divorced in 1901, and Howe never remarried.
Career
Howe began his journalistic career in March 1873 when, as a 19-year-old, he came to Golden, Colorado, from Falls City, Nebraska, and partnered with William F. Dorsey to acquire the Golden Eagle newspaper. Renaming it the Golden Globe, it was the second main newspaper in Golden and served a Republican readership and political bent. Howe, who took over complete ownership by the end of the year, quickly gained a reputation as a sharp-witted editor in the community, foreshadow his achievement of national fame.
