The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1878–1880

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The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1878–1880

Volume 1

Henry James
Edited by Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias
With an introduction by Michael Anesko 

The Complete Letters of Henry James Series

424 pages
8 illustrations

Hardcover

October 2014

978-0-8032-5424-4

$90.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

October 2014

978-0-8032-8799-0

$90.00 Add to Cart

About the Book

Containing letters written between October 3, 1878, and August 30, 1879, this volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James reveals Henry James establishing control of his writing career and finding confidence in himself not only as a professional author on both sides of the Atlantic but also as an important social figure in London.

In this volume of 114 letters, of which 58 are published for the first time, we see James learning to negotiate, pitting one publisher against another, and working to secure simultaneous publication in the United States and England. He establishes a working relationship with Frederick Macmillan and with the Macmillan publishing house, cultivates reviewers, basks in the success—and notoriety—of his novella Daisy Miller, and visits Alfred Tennyson and George Eliot, among others. James also produces essays on political subjects and continues to publish reviews and travel essays. Perhaps most important, James negotiates terms for and begins planning The Portrait of a Lady.

 

Author Bio

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.

Pierre A. Walker is a professor of English at Salem State University. He is the editor of Henry James on Culture: Collected Essays on Politics and the American Social Scene (Nebraska, 1999).
Greg W. Zacharias is a professor of English at Creighton University, where he directs the Center for Henry James Studies. He is the editor of A Companion to Henry James and coeditor of Tracing Henry James. Michael Anesko is a professor of English at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of Monopolizing the Master: Henry James and the Politics of Modern Literary Scholarship.

Praise

"This latest volume of the Complete Letters represents, no less than its forebears, an inestimable contribution to readers hitherto obliged to hunt down James's Letters in carious selections or scattered archives, and deserves to be greeted with the same jubilant chorus of praise and gratitude."—Alicia Rix, Times Literary Supplement

"The postwar decades saw the wholesale reclamation of James as an American author and the institution of a veritable industry of James scholarship. As a manifestation of and resource for that scholarship, the series is exemplary in its meticulous attention to the detail of what James wrote. . . . Despite the unconventional look of this text, the edition is highly readable; and the letters are supplemented by ample explanatory notes, as well as illustrations."—Guy Davidson, Australasian Journal of American Studies

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Real Career, the Larger Success, by Michael Anesko
Symbols and Abbreviations
Chronology
Errata
1878
October 3To William Ernest Henley
October 4To Alice James
October 4To Thomas Sergeant Perry
<b>October 6</b>To William Ernest Henley
October 6To Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton
October 9To Elizabeth Boott
October 11To Frederick Macmillan
<b>October 11, 18 or 25 </b>To William Ernest Henley
October 18To Henry James Sr.
October 24To Henry James Sr.
October 27To Mary Walsh James
October 27To Frederick Macmillan
October 30To Elizabeth Boott
November 9To Richard von Hoffmann
November 14To William James
November 17To Charles Eliot Norton
November 17To Mary Walsh James
November 17To John Foster Kirk
<b>November 17?</b>To Frederick Macmillan
November 17To Whitelaw Reid
November 17To Elizabeth Boott
November 24To Henry James Sr.
December 8To Frederick Macmillan
December 9To Alice James
December 10To Henrietta Heathorn Huxley
December 21To Moncure Daniel Conway
<b>December 25</b>To Elizabeth Boott
December 29To William D. Hertz
December 29To William Dean Howells
<b>December 31</b><n><b>January 1</b>To Alice James
1879
January 4, <b>5</b>To Grace Norton
January 8To James Payn and Louisa Edlin Payn 
January 13To James Bryce
January 15To Julian Hawthorne
January 18To Mary Walsh James
January 19To Frederick Macmillan
<b>January 20</b>To Frederick Macmillan
<b>January 21</b>To Edward Smyth Pigott
January 22To Julian Hawthorne
January 22To Frederick Macmillan
January 31To Mary Walsh James
February 5To William Ernest Henley
February 11To Elizabeth Boott
February 16To George Grove
February 16, 17To Alice James
<b>February 17</b>To Frederick Macmillan
February18To Frederick Macmillan
February20To Katherine Fearing Strong Welman
February26To Elizabeth Boott
February26To Frederick Macmillan
March1To Sarah Perkins Cleveland
March4To Fanny Hertz
March4To William James
March5To Louisa Lawrence
March11To Moncure Daniel Conway and Ellen Davis Dana Conway
March 17To Elizabeth Boott
March 17To Fanny Hertz
March 17To Frederick Macmillan
March 21To Jane Dalzell Finlay Hill
March <b>23</b>, 26To Alice James
March 27To Josiah Holland
April 7To William Dean Howells
April 8To Mary Walsh James
April 9To William Ernest Henley
April 14To Elizabeth Boott
April 16To Henry James Sr.
May 3To Josiah Holland
May 3To Henrietta Heathorn Huxley
May 4To Elizabeth Boott
May <b>4</b> <i>; misdated</i> 14 MayTo Mary Walsh James
May 5To Henry Adams
May 6To Edward Smyth Pigott
May 10To Frederick Macmillan
May 16To Thomas Sergeant Perry
May 16To Elizabeth Smith
May 19, 20To Alice James
May 23To George Grove
May 26To Elizabeth Boott
May 26To Henry James Sr.
May 26To William Ernest Henley
<b>May 26</b>To Eliza Bella Fisher Leland
May 28To <b><i>Scribner’s Monthly</i></b> 
May 28To Henry Sidgwick
May 29To Louisa Lawrence
<b>May 31</b>To Mary Walsh James
<b>June 6 or 13 </b>To Isabella Stewart Gardner
June 7To <i>Scribner’s Monthly</i>
June 8To Grace Norton
June 15To William James
June 17To William Dean Howells
June 18To Frederick Macmillan
June 21To William Ernest Henley
June 28To Elizabeth Boott
July 5To Isabella Stewart Gardner
July 6To Mary Walsh James
July 13To Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley
July 14To Frederick Macmillan
July 15To Isabella Stewart Gardner
July 15To Frederick Macmillan
<b>c. July 18</b>To William Dean Howells
July 19To Elizabeth Eberstadt Lewis
July 21To Elizabeth Boott
July 22To Isabella Stewart Gardner
July 22To William Dean Howells
July 22To Frederick Macmillan
July 26To Alexander Macmillan
July 28To Mary Walsh James
July 28To Frederic William Henry Myers
August 16To Wendell Phillips Garrison
August 19To William Dean Howells
August 19To Alice James
August 19To William James
<b>August</b> 23<i>; misdated</i> AprilTo William Dean Howells
August 30To William James
Biographical Register
Genealogies
General Editors’ Note
Works Cited
Index

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