Editing William Dean Howells (section)

===Later years===
[[File:Picture of William Dean Howells at his Office Desk.jpg|thumb|Howells in his home office, before 1902]]
In 1902, Howells published ''[[The Flight of Pony Baker]]'', a book for children partly inspired by his own childhood.<ref>Olsen, 5</ref> The same year, he bought a summer home overlooking the [[Piscataqua River]] in [[Kittery Point, Maine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seacoastnh.com/Famous-People/Link-Free-or-Die/William-Dean-Howells-at-Kittery/|title=William Dean Howells at Kittery|author=J. Dennis Robinson|work=seacoastnh.com}}</ref> He returned there annually until his wife's death, then left the house to his son and family and moved to a house in [[York Harbor, Maine|York Harbor]]. His grandson, John Noyes Mead Howells, donated the property to Harvard University as a memorial in 1979.<ref>[http://www.hres.harvard.edu/RRE/TenantWeb/Maine/Howells/about.htm William Dean Howells Memorial House, Kittery Point, Maine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100627103741/http://www.hres.harvard.edu/RRE/TenantWeb/Maine/Howells/about.htm |date=2010-06-27 }}</ref> In 1904 he was one of the first seven people chosen for membership in the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]], of which he became president.

In February 1910, Elinor Howells began using [[morphine]] to treat her worsening [[neuritis]].<ref>Goodman and Dawson, 401</ref> She died on May 6, a few days after her birthday, and only two weeks after the death of Howells's friend Mark Twain. [[Henry James]] offered his condolences, writing "I think of this laceration of your life with an infinite sense of all it will mean for you".<ref>Lynn, 322</ref> Howells and his daughter Mildred decided to spend part of the year in their Cambridge home on [[Concord Avenue (Cambridge, Massachusetts)|Concord Avenue]]; though, without Elinor, they found it "dreadful in its ghostliness and ghastliness".<ref>Goodman and Dawson, 402</ref>

Howells died in his sleep shortly after midnight on May 11, 1920,<ref>Goodman and Dawson, 432</ref> of [[influenza]]<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 May 1920 |title=W.D. Howells dies suddenly at 83 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1920/05/12/archives/wd-howells-dies-suddenly-at-83-dominant-figure-in-american-letters.html |access-date=24 November 2024 |work=[[The New York Times]] |pages=11}}</ref> and was buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cambridgema.gov/theworks/ourservices/cambridgecemetery.aspx|title=Cambridge Cemetery - Public Works - City of Cambridge, Massachusetts|author=ISITE Design|work=cambridgema.gov}}</ref> Eight years later his daughter published his correspondence as a biography of his literary life.