Book dossier

A hazard of new fortunes

by William Dean Howells

<p>Basil March jumps at the chance to leave his boring job to become the founding editor of a new magazine. But this also means that he must leave comfortable Boston for the confusion and chaos of 1890s New York. As March and his wife try to find a decent place to live, he also struggles to find contributors and readers. The Marches are quickly drawn into the tangled lives of their fellow New Yorkers: a bitter German socialist who lost his hand fighting for the Union in the Civil War, a colonel nostalgic for slavery, Bohemian artists, increasingly desperate workers on strike, a slick publicist, a starchy society family, and a wealthy farmer-turned-speculator who hurts those he loves most.</p> <p>Born in Ohio, <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-dean-howells">William Dean Howells</a> was a highly successful magazine editor before he became a full-time writer. He believed that this midlife novel, which draws on his own family’s experiences moving from Boston to New York, was his “most vital work.” <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/mark-twain">Mark Twain</a>, whom Howells helped early in his career, called <i>A Hazard of New Fortunes</i> “the exactest & truest portrayal of New York and New York life ever written … a great book.”</p>