Professor Harriet Beecher Stowe

My Wife and I Professor Harriet Beecher Stowe

During the passage of this story through The Christian Union, it has been repeatedly taken for granted by the public press that certain of the characters are designed as portraits of really exist-ing individuals. They are not. The supposition has its rise in an imperfect consideration of the principles of dra-matic composition. The novel-writer does not profess to paint portraits of any individual men and women in his personal acquaintance. Certain characters are required for the purposes of his story. He conceives and creates them, and they become to him real living beings, acting and speaking in ways of their own. But on the other hand, he is guided in this creation by his knowledge and experience of men and women, and studies individual instances and incidents only to assure himself of the possibility and prob-ability of the character he creates.