Background
Percival Presland Howe was born on July 29, 1886, in South London, England. His parents were comfortably wealthy, and were, moreover, great lovers of poetry.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
The Repertory Theatre: A Record & A Criticism
https://www.amazon.com/Repertory-Theatre-Record-Criticism/dp/134762581X/?tag=2022091-20
1910
J. M. Synge: A Critical Study
https://www.amazon.com/J-M-Synge-Critical-Classic/dp/B00948HCI2/?tag=2022091-20
1912
Dramatic Portraits
https://www.amazon.com/Dramatic-Portraits-Percival-Presland-Howe/dp/B00A15RVBU/?tag=2022091-20
1913
Bernard Shaw: A Critical Study
https://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Shaw-Percival-Presland-1886-1944/dp/B003RGID26/?tag=2022091-20
1915
Criticism
https://www.amazon.com/Criticism-Classic-Reprint-P-Howe/dp/0332107035/?tag=2022091-20
1915
The Life of William Hazlitt
https://www.amazon.com/life-William-Hazlitt-Percival-Presland/dp/1429793694/?tag=2022091-20
1922
The Complete Works of William C. Hazlitt
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Works-William-C-Hazlitt/dp/0404032109/?tag=2022091-20
1934
Percival Presland Howe
Edit ProfileEducation
Howe left school at the age of eighteen.
Career
After leaving school, Howe worked briefly for his father’s ship brokering business but soon wandered into journalism by taking a sub-editorial position at Nash’s Magazine. He also began writing theater criticism for a small socialist weekly.
Howe’s passion for the theater - and, in particular, his passion for new playwrights - led him to write The Repertory Theater (1910), about the Barker-Frohman Repertory Theater. Repertory Theater brought Howe to the fore of drama criticism, and soon after its publication he became the regular drama critic for Outlook. Two years later, he followed this success with another “appreciative” study - this time, of his old hero J. M. Synge.
Following the publication of Howe’s critical works, he was called away by World War I, during which time he served in the Royal Artillery. When he returned, Howe began to work as a publisher and editor for Martin Seeker’s publishing house, and at the same time returned to his drama criticism at the journal Truth. His books, however, changed subtly. He began to focus on his Life of William Hazlitt with a kind of passionate obsession.
The result was a work that tells the story of Hazlitt’s life in the words of witnesses; instead of offering appreciative criticism of Hazlitt’s work - Howe’s usual mode - he allowed the documents to speak for themselves. He also allowed his great love of Hazlitt, evident in his absorption in the project, to speak for itself. The result was a work that laid the foundation for any future study of Hazlitt.
Howe continued to work as publisher and editor until his death. Howe died following a lung operation, March 19, 1944.
Achievements
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P. P. Howe began his career as a drama critic but became best known for his warmly partisan biographies. The most famous of these is The Life of William Hazlitt (1922), a monumental work that became the basis for all scholarly work on the great nineteenth-century writer. His tribute to Hazlitt - and his tributes to Synge, Shaw, and others - helped pave the way for a generation of readers to appreciate the theater.
Works
book
Personality
Howe had been interested in the theater since he was a boy; his brother, Garfield, and his best friend, Frank Swinnerton, had long been in the habit of haunting the theater district with Howe.
Quotes from others about the person
“Without Howe’s work it is unlikely that Hazlitt would fill such a prominent position in the landscape of English Romanticism since few would be willing to lavish the scholarship and devotion that he gave to his subject and fewer still would be capable of redeeming Hazlitt from the calumnies and neglect into which his reputation had fallen.” - A. R. Jones
Connections
Howe married in 1913. He had four children.
References
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Born
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Died
March 19, 1944 (aged 57) -
Nationality
United Kingdom
Career
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1904
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1904 - 1908
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1904
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1910
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1919 - 1935
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1919
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1940