William Dean Howells (/ˈhaʊəlz/; 1 Maret 1837 – 11 Mei 1920) adalah seorang novelis realis, kritikus sastra dan pengarang drama Amerika Serikat, yang berjudul "Dekan Sastra Amerika". Ia dikenal karena menjadi penyunting The Atlantic Monthly, serta tulisan-tulisan berharga miliknya, yang meliputi cerita Natal "Christmas Every Day" serta novel-novel The Rise of Silas Lapham dan A Traveler from Altruria.
Fryckstedt, Olov W. 1958. In Quest of America: A Study of Howells' Early Development as a Novelist. Uppsala, Sweden: Thesis.
Goodman, Susan and Carl Dawson. William Dean Howells: A Writer's Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. ISBN0-520-23896-6
Lynn, Kenneth S. William Dean Howells: An American Life. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1970. ISBN0-15-142177-3
Olsen, Rodney. Dancing in Chains: The Youth of William Dean Howells. New York: New York University Press, 1991. ISBN0-8147-6172-0
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Peter J. Frederick, Knights of the Golden Rule: The Intellectual As Christian Social Reformer in the 1890s. Lexington, KY: University Press Of Kentucky, 1976.
Ulrich Halfmann and William Dean Howells, "Interviews with William Dean Howells," American Literary Realism, 1870–1910, vol. 6, no. 4 (Fall 1973), pp. 274–275, 277–279, 281–399, 401–416. In JSTOR.
Ulrich Halfmann and Don R. Smith, "William Dean Howells: A Revised and Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Comment in Periodicals and Newspapers, 1868–1919," American Literary Realism, 1870–1910, vol. 5, no. 2 (Spring 1972), pp. 91–121. In JSTOR.
Radavich, David. "Twain, Howells, and the Origins of Midwestern Drama." MidAmerica XXXI (2004): 25–42.
N. S. Witschi, Traces of Gold: California's Natural Resources and the Claim to Realism in Western American Literature. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2002.
William Dean Howells Society includes a biographical sketch of Howells, links to his works (including the "Editor's Study" columns), questions and replies, bibliographies, and pictures.