HOWELL, JAMES (c. 1594-1666), author of the Epistolae Ho-elianae, who came of an old Welsh family, was born probably at Abernant, in Carmarthenshire, where his father was rector. From the free grammar school at Hereford he went to Jesus col lege, Oxford, and took his degree of B.A. in 1613. He occupied numerous posts, served for a time in parliament and at various periods maintained himself almost entirely by writing pamphlets, dictionaries and translations. In 166o the post of historiographer royal was created for him. Howell was buried in the Temple Church on Nov. 3, 1666.
All Howell's writings are imbued with a certain simplicity and quaintness. But he lives by his entertaining Letters, the Epistolae Ho-elianae (4 vols., 1645-55). Their dates are often fictitious, and they are, in nearly every case, evidently written for publica tion. Thackeray said that the Letters was one of his bedside books. He classes it with Montaigne and says he scarcely ever tired of "the artless prattle" of the "priggish little clerk of King Charles's council." The Epistolae have been frequently edited, notably by J. Jacobs in 189o, with a commentary (1891) , and Agnes Repplier (1907).