The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1855–1872: Volume 2(The Complete Letters of Henry James)

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 on art, literature, and criticism-this edition is an indispensable resource for students of James and of American and English literature, culture, and criticism. It will also be essential for research libraries throughout North America and Europe and for scholars who specialize in James, the European novel, and modern literature. Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias have conceived this edition according to the exacting standards of the Committee on Scholarly Editions. The first in the series, this two-volume work includes the letters from 1854 to 1869 in volume one and the letters from 1869 to 1872 in volume two.

Table of Contents:
General Editors' Introduction; Chronology; Letters, 1869-1872; Biographical Register; Genealogies; Works Cited; Index

About the Author :
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.

Review :
"These extraordinary, profoundly welcome volumes are the first fruits of an epic undertaking by two heroic American scholars, Pierre Walker and Greg Zacharias ... The two volumes here contain 161 painstakingly edited, spaciously presented letters (52 previously unpublished). The total number of James letters know to be in existence today is 10,423. The editors coolly estimate that "this project will produce at least 140 individual volumes"... And these early volumes give a wonderfully pleasurable picture of a writer at the beginning of his journey ..."--Philip Horne, The Daily Telegraph 6th January 2007 "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 "[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, 11 May 2007 "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... James's correspondence, its editors estimate, will run to at least 140 volumes and will include more than 10,000 letters. The most comprehensive edition before this ... Offered just 1.000 or so. The partiality of that selection is revealed by this magisterial new venture, whose two opening volumes brim with a wealth of hitherto unpublished letters... These are richly enthralling letters. The sooner the next 138 or so volumes appear, the better."--Peter Kemp, Culture Supplement to the Sunday Times, 22 July 2007 "enthralling early letters from a genius in the making."--Culture (Supplement to the Sunday Times), 29 July 2007 "These two volumes are dominated by the James family's European wandering, and then by Henry James's first visit alone to Europe, especially his travels in England and Italy. They throw much light on his relationship with his family and his country of birth while at the same time helping us toward some understanding of his health problems, such as they were. 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, 3 January 2008