Praised for the masterfully drawn protagonist, Jeff Durgan,The Landlord at Lions Headconsidered one of Howellss best novels for its expert characterizationfollows Durgin from his impoverished childhood on a New England farm, to his unsuccessful career at Harvard, and finally to success at his fashionable hotel on the old farms site.

William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American novelist and critic.  He edited theAtlantic Monthly from 1871-1881, where he championed literary realism and advanced the careers of such important American writers as Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and Henry James.  His best known novel isThe Rise of Silas Lapham (1885).