Recipient of the "Approved Edition" seal from the Modern Language Association's Committee on Scholarly Editions
The Complete Letters of Henry James fills a crucial gap in modern literary studies by presenting in a scholarly edition the complete letters of one of the great novelists and letter writers of the English language. Comprising more than ten thousand letters reflecting on a remarkably wide range of topics-from James's own life and literary projects to broader questions about art, literature, and criticism-this edition is an indispensable resource for students of James and of American and English literature, culture, and criticism as well as for research libraries throughout North America and Europe and for scholars of James, the European novel, and modern literature. This volume is the second of three to include James's letters from 1872 to 1876.
Table of Contents:
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Symbols and Abbreviations
Chronology
Errata
1873
July 15 To Mary Walsh James
July 17 To Grace Norton
July 23 To Mary Walsh James
August 1 To Catharine Walsh
August 4 To Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh James
August 5 To William James
August 10 To Sarah Butler Wister
August 14 To Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh James
August 15 To Elizabeth Boott
September 3 To Alice James
September 9 To William Dean Howells
September 15 To William James
September 22 To Mary Walsh James
September 26 To William James
October 18 To William Dean Howells
October 26 To Henry James Sr.
November 2 To Henry James Sr.
November 16, 17 To Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh James
December 3 To Henry James Sr.
December 10 To Elizabeth Boott
December 22 To Henry James Sr.
1874
January 4 To Samuel Gray Ward
January 9 To William Dean Howells
January 13 To Alice James
January 14 To Grace Norton
February 5 To Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh James
February 11 To Anna Hallowell
February 15 To Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh James
February 27 To Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh James
February 28 To William James
March 1 To Editor of the Independent
March 9 To Henry James Sr. and Mary Walsh James
March 10 To William Dean Howells
March 22 To William James
April 4 To Mary Walsh James
April 7, 8 To Elizabeth Boott
April 18, 19 To Alice James
May 3 To William Dean Howells
May 3 To William James
May 10 To Sarah Butler Wister
May 17 To Mary Walsh James
June 3 To Mary Walsh James
June 13 To William James
June 23 To Henry James Sr.
July 6 To William James
July 28 To Mary Walsh James
July 29 To Elizabeth Boott
July 29 To Sarah Butler Wister
October 13 To Robertson James
November 18 or 25, December 2 or 9, 1874 To H. O. Houghton and Co.
late December 1874January 1875 To Welch and Bigelow
December 22, 29, 1874, or January 5, 12, 19, or 26, or February 2, 1875 To Elizabeth Boott
1875
January 13 To William Dean Howells
January 23 To Sarah Butler Wister
January 29 To Welch and Bigelow
February To Wendell Phillips Garrison
March 8 To Elizabeth Boott
March 19 or 26 To William Dean Howells
spring To Anna Hazard Barker Ward
April 16 To Caroline Dall
April 27 To H. O. Houghton and Co.
May 27 To Mary Lucinda Holton James
late spring To James Ripley Osgood
June 7 To George William Curtis
June 7 To Caroline Dall
June 23 or 30 To William Dean Howells
July 21 To John Milton Hay
August 5 To John Milton Hay
August 18 To John Milton Hay
August 18 To J. R. Osgood and Co.
August 24 To H. O. Houghton and Co.
August 30 To H. O. Houghton and Co.
August 31 To James Ripley Osgood
September 1 To Edmund Clarence Stedman
October 7 To H. O. Houghton and Co.
October 13 To H. O. Houghton and Co.
October 13 To George Abbot James
October 15 To H. O. Houghton and Co.
Biographical Register
Genealogies
General Editors' Note
Works Cited
Index
About the Author :
Henry James (1843–1916) wrote short stories, plays, literary criticism, and travel essays and is most famous for his many novels, which include The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl. American born, he spent considerable time in England and eventually became a British subject. When he died, he left behind more than ten thousand letters. Pierre A. Walker is a professor of English at Salem State College. He is the editor of Henry James on Culture: Collected Essays on Politics and the American Social Scene, available in a Bison Books edition, and the author of Reading Henry James in French Cultural Contexts. Greg W. Zacharias is a professor of English and the founder and director of the Center for Henry James Studies at Creighton University. He is the author of Henry James and the Morality of Fiction, editor of A Companion to Henry James, and coeditor of Tracing Henry James.
Review :
"The Letters collected in these elegant volumes, edited by Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias, cover periods in which Henry James became Henry James... two things need to be said about this extraordinary job of editing that Walker and Zacharias have done. First, they print James's letters in plain text, reproducing his many misspellings and abbreviations and strike-outs: James wrote quickly and in an almost illegible hand; he blotted many words and yet hardly ever had to struggle for the right ones; his most aphoristic moments appear to have been spontaneous. Second, these letters contain an awful lot of proper names, many of them belonging to those who, like Edmund Tweedy, were obscure at the time and are more so now. Earlier editions of letters by Edel or Philip Horne, among others, have identified most of these figures. This edition gets them all, and both the footnotes and the biographical register at the back of each volume are at once succinct and full. They allow any reader to place and know the people in this busy social world." Michael Gorra, Times Literary Supplement Praise for earlier volumes: "These extraordinary, profoundly welcome volumes are the first fruits of an epic undertaking by two heroic American scholars, Pierre Walker and Greg Zacharias ... These early volumes give a wonderfully pleasurable picture of a writer at the beginning of his journey ..." Philip Horne, The Daily Telegraph "[James's] letters have never before appeared in their entirety. The University of Nebraska Press is attempting slowly, to make up for that fact in a scholarly edition that obviates the need for any other." Times Literary Supplement "Rippling through these letters are the first imaginative stirrings of one of the greatest fiction and travel writers in the language. He was also one of the most entertaining--and prolific--correspondents... These are richly enthralling letters. The sooner the next 138 or so volumes appear, the better." Peter Kemp, Sunday Times "Some of the letters from Italy are small masterpieces of description; they are alert and sensitive and full of astute judgements." London Review of Books "enthralling early letters from a genius in the making." Culture (Supplement to the Sunday Times), "The general public has been deprived of James's full epistolary record until now... All the more reason to celebrate the present volumes, handsomely produced and extensively and intelligently annotated." Peter Brooks, Bookforum
