By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - The city will reach back into America's literary past this weekend to celebrate a local connection to one of the nation's most prominent late 19th- and early 20th-century authors and editors.

IF YOU GO

What: The unveiling of a marker honoring William Dean Howells, a distinguished literary figure, and the initiation of a sign-directed tour commemorating his boyhood years in Hamilton. When: 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Where: Monument Park, South Monument Avenue, downtown Hamilton.

An Ohio bicentennial historical marker honoring William Dean Howells, who spent his childhood in Hamilton in the 1840s, will be unveiled at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at downtown's Monument Park.

An ad hoc committee has assembled a sign-directed walking and driving tour of 12 sites in Hamilton connected to Howells. Tour fliers will be available at Monument Park, the Butler County Soldiers, Sailors & Pioneers Monument and the Hamiltonian Hotel's front desk.

Howells, a close friend of Mark Twain, wrote novels, plays, literary criticism and poetry, and edited The Atlantic Monthly and Harper's magazines. In 1890, he published A Boy's Town, a book in which he affectionately recounts his eight childhood years in Hamilton.

"He was called the dean of American letters," said Richard Haid, a member of the ad hoc committee that spent three years planning the Howells celebration and tour. "He was a giant."

"He's certainly one of Hamilton's claims to fame," said Valerie Elliott, head of the Smith Regional History Library in Oxford. "We're pleased there's enough interest in the community to highlight his connections to Hamilton."

In a letter to the 1891 Hamilton Centennial Commission, Howells called Hamilton "the home of my happiest years."

Three of Howells' great-grandchildren who live in Maine will be in Hamilton on Saturday for the festivities. A reservation-only luncheon at the Fitton Center for the Performing Arts in Hamilton will feature speeches by Sanford Marovitz, president of the William Dean Howells National Society, and Robert Rhode, an English professor at Northern Kentucky University, as well as a slide presentation of the Howells historic tour.

Chris Kramer, a professional actor from Hamilton, will portray Howells at the luncheon.

On Saturday morning at the Fitton Center, there will be a display of Howells' material and books provided by the Lane Public Library in Hamilton, the Smith Regional History Library and the Miami University Library.

The Ohio Bicentennial Commission and the Hamilton Community Foundation have helped finance this event.

The three Hamilton houses Howells lived in and other landmarks of his time are gone.

"But when somebody sees the tour map and reads the signs at the sites, they will be able to visualize Hamilton at an earlier time," Elliott said.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com