HOWE, EDGAR WATSON: 1853-1937.
Edgar Watson Howe , son of Henry and Elizabeth Irwin Howe, was born at Treaty, Ind., on May 3, 1853. Except for brief attendance at common schools he was self-educated, and at the age of twelve he started to work in a printing office. For two years he worked on the HERALD at Falls City, Neb. At nineteen he was publisher of the GOLDEN GLOBE in Golden, Col., and in 1877 he started the ATCHISON DAILY GLOBE in Atchison, Kan., which he published for thirty-four years.
Other newspapers over the U. S. reprinted material from the GLOBE, which became known as the most extensively quoted paper in the country. In 1911 Howe retired from his paper, gave it to his two sons, and devoted himself to travel and the publication of E. W. HOWE'S MONTHLY. Accounts of his travels were printed in the GLOBE and later published in book form. The MONTHLY, except for occasional reprints, was written entirely by Howe, who took this means of expressing his views on a variety of subjects. The paper attained a wide circulation and was published until 1933. His first novel, The Story of a Country Town, was rejected by New York publishers, but Howe printed it himself, and it received such favorable reviews that it was published by six publishers within the next fifty years. H. L. Mencken, in his introduction to Ventures in Common Sense, describes Howe as unusually candid and honest in the expression of his opinions and his books as being very readable.
Mr. Howe married Clara L. Frank in 1873. He died on Oct. 3, 1937. He was known as the "Sage of Potato Hill."
Information from Who Was Who in America; Appletons" Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. III; the Barry Ms.; Burke and Howe–American Authors and Books, 1640-1940; and the Introduction to Ventures in Common Sense.
- The History of the Class of 'Seventy-Eight at the U.
S. Military Academy. New York, 1881.
- The Story of a Country Town. Atchison,
Kan., 1883.
- The Mystery of the Locks.
Boston, 1885.
- A Moonlight Boy. Boston, 1886.
- A Man Story. Boston, 1888.
- An Ante-Mortem Statement. Atchison,
Kan., 1891.
- The Confession of John Whitlock, Late Preacher of the
Gospel. Atchison, Kan., 1891.
- Daily Notes of a Trip Around the World. 1907. 2 vols.
- The Trip to the West Indies. Topeka,
Kan., 1910.
- Country Town Sayings: A Collection of Paragraphs from the
Atchison Globe. Topeka, Kan., 1911.
- Travel Letters from New Zealand, Australia and
Africa. Topeka, Kan., 1913.
- Success Easier than Failure. Topeka,
Kan., 1917.
- The Blessing of Business. Topeka,
Kan., 1918.
- Ventures in Common Sense. New
York, 1919.
-
The Anthology of Another Town
. New York, 1920.
- Plain People, an Autobiography. New
York, 1929.
- The Indignations of E. W. Howe. Girard,
Kan., 1933.
