The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883–1884

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The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883–1884

Volume 1

Henry James
Edited by Michael Anesko and Greg W. Zacharias
Katie Sommer, Associate Editor
With an introduction by Kathleen Lawrence

The Complete Letters of Henry James Series

440 pages
Index

Hardcover

October 2018

978-1-4962-0643-5

$95.00 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

October 2018

978-1-4962-0742-5

$95.00 Add to Cart

About the Book

This volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883–1884 includes 178 letters, of which 117 are published for the first time, written from January 2, 1883, to January 29, 1884. The letters trace the development of Henry James’s literary career as well as the maturation of his international reputation as a public figure. They also record James’s recovery following the deaths of his parents and brother, the difficult execution of his father’s will, and his return to England from an extended stay in the United States. This volume concludes with James’s continuing efforts to maximize his writing income.
              

Author Bio

Henry James (1843–1916) was an American author and literary critic. He wrote some two dozen novels, including Portrait of a Lady and The Golden Bowl, and left behind more than ten thousand letters.
               Michael Anesko is a professor of English and American studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He is a general editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James and the author, most recently, of Generous Mistakes: Incidents of Error in Henry James.
               Greg W. Zacharias is a professor of English and the director of the Center for Henry James Studies at Creighton University. He is the editor of A Companion to Henry James and the coeditor of Tracing Henry James.
               Katie Sommer has been an associate editor of the Complete Letters of Henry James series since 2007 and has worked on the Henry James letters project since 2001.
Kathleen Lawrence is an editor for The Complete Fiction of Henry James.
 
 
 
 

Praise

Praise for earlier volumes in The Complete Letters of Henry James series:
 
“Rippling through these letters are the first imaginative stirrings of one of the greatest fiction and travel writers in the language. [James] was also one of the most entertaining—and prolific—correspondents. . . . These are richly enthralling letters.”—Peter Kemp, Sunday Times (London)
 
“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 various selections or scattered archives, and deserves to be greeted with the same jubilant chorus of praise and gratitude.”—Alicia Rix, Times Literary Supplement
 
“This edition is not just notable for its astonishing ambition, however; even at this early stage, it must also be reckoned a signal achievement. By every measure, the volumes we have so far are simply outstanding in every major respect. . . . The result is an embarrassment of critical and biographical riches.”—Bruce Bawer, New Criterion
 

Table of Contents

The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883-1884, volume 1, contains 173 letters, of which 115 are published for the first time. Each letter is followed by previous publication information or a note that there is no previous publication.

Acknowledgments    
Introduction: Restless Ambition; A Cosmopolite Author at the Height of His Powers, by Kathleen Lawrence    
Symbols and Abbreviations    
Chronology    
Errata    

1883
January 2    To Florence Bayard Lockwood    
January 3    To James Ripley Osgood    
[January 4-April 5]    To Isabella Stewart Gardner    
[January 5-April 6]    To Isabella Stewart Gardner    
[January 5-March 31]    To Lillian June Bailey Henschel    
[January 7-April 1]    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
January 8    To William James    
[January 11]    To Isabella Stewart Gardner    
January 11    To Robertson James    
January 11    To William James    
January 12    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
[January 14]    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
January 23    To William James    
January 25    To William James    
January 26    To Helena de Kay Gilder    
January 27    To James Stoddart Bain    
January 27    To Frederick Macmillan    
[January 29]    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
[c. January 30]    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
February 1    To Frances “Fanny” Anne Kemble    
February 5    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
February 5    To Mary Elizabeth “Lilian” Woodman Aldrich    
February 5    To Caroline Dall    
February 5    To John Milton Hay    
February 5    To William James    
February 5    To Frederick Macmillan    
February 7    To William James    
February 11    To William James    
February 12    To Louisa Lawrence    
[February 12-June 11]    To Grace Norton    
[February 18-August 12]To Grace Norton    
February 21    To George Washburn Smalley    
February 21    To John Wilson and Son    
February 23    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
February 27    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
February 28    To Marian “Clover” Hooper Adams    
March 2    To Houghton, Mifflin and Company    
March 5    To Rhoda Broughton    
March 5    To Unknown    
March 7    To Henry C. Ahlborn    
March 13    To Richard Watson Gilder    
March 15    To Sir George Henschel    
March 18    To Richard Watson Gilder    
March 20    To William Dean Howells    
March 27    To Elizabeth Boott    
March 29    To Frederick Macmillan    
March 30    To Alice Stopford Green    
April 2    To Edmund Gosse    
April 8    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
April 8    To James Ripley Osgood    
April 12    To Francis Boott    
[April 15]    To Grace Norton    
April 17    To George Du Maurier    
April 18    To Julia Colt Pierson Emmet    
April 19    To Frederick Macmillan    
April 19    To James Ripley Osgood    
April 22    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
April 26    To Charles Hamilton Aïdé    
April 26    To Grace Norton    
May 2    To Robertson James    
May 2    To Houghton, Mifflin and Company    
May 2    To Grace Norton    
May 2    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
May 4    To Lillian June Bailey Henschel    
May 5    To James Ripley Osgood    
May 5    To James Ripley Osgood    
[May 7-July 9]    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
May 8    To Frederick Macmillan    
May 9    To Emma Lazarus    
May [13]    To Emma Lazarus    
[May 17 or 24]    To Grace Norton    
May 17    To James Ripley Osgood    
[May 20 or 27]    To Grace Norton    
May 22    To James Ripley Osgood    
[c. May 23 or June 6, 13, 20, 1883]    To Grace Norton    
May 24    To John Milton Hay    
May 24    To Grace Norton    
[May 25]    To Grace Norton    
May 29    To Grace Norton    
June 1    To Grace Norton    
June 4    To Robertson James    
June 7    To Louisa Lawrence    
June 9    To Elizabeth Palmer Peabody    
June 10    To Charles Hamilton Aïdé    
June 11    To Frederick Macmillan    
June 15    To Annie Adams Fields    
June 15    To George Abbot James    
June 16    To Houghton, Mifflin and Company    
June 16    To Louisa Lawrence    
June 16    To Christina Stewart Rogerson    
June 16    To Hannah de Rothschild Primrose, Lady Rosebery    
June 16    To Ellen Twisleton Parkman Vaughan 
June 18    To Sir John Forbes Clark    
June 20    To Robertson James    
June 23    To George Pellew    
June 24    To Caroline Sturgis Tappan    
June 26    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
June 27    To Henrietta Reubell    
June 28    To Sarah Wyman Whitman    
July 8    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
July 10    To Sir John Forbes Clark    
July 10    To George Abbot James    
July 10    To Benjamin Holt Ticknor    
[July 14]    To George Abbot James    
[July 14]    To Grace Norton    
July 18    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
July 21    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
July 22    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
July 22    To Whitelaw Reid    
July 26    To Francis Boott    
July 26    To George Abbot James    
July 27    To Whitelaw Reid    
July 28    To Grace Norton    
August 8    To Grace Norton    
August 8    To Whitelaw Reid    
August 10    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
August 16    To Mary Cadwalader Jones    
August 17    To William James    
August 18    To John Milton Hay    
August 19    To Grace Norton    
August 21    To Sarah Wyman Whitman    
[after September 1]    To Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley    
September 2    To Emma Lazarus    
September 5    To Elizabeth Thompson    
[September 5, 1883-March 3, 1886]    To Alice Stopford Green    
September 6    To Sir John Forbes Clark    
September 10    To Charles Eliot Norton    
September 10    To Benjamin Holt Ticknor    
September 15    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
September 20    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
October 1    To Theodore E. Child    
October 10    To Theodore E. Child    
October 10    To Sir John Forbes Clark    
October 10    To William James    
October 11    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
October 13    To Henrietta Reubell    
October 14    To Elizabeth Boott    
October 14    To Alice Stopford Green    
October 15    To John Eliot Bowen    
October 19    To Maurice Crawford Macmillan    
October 24    To Walter Herries Pollock    
October 24    To Christina Stewart Rogerson    
October 25    To William James    
October 27    To Louisa Lawrence    
October 29    To Grace Norton    
October 31    To James Ripley Osgood    
November 2    To Frederick Macmillan    
November 6    To James Ripley Osgood    
November 7    To Edmund Gosse    
November 8    To Ellen “Nellie” Epps Gosse    
November 14    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    
November 14    To Grace Norton    
November 24    To William James    
November 25    To Thomas Sergeant Perry    
December 2    To Robertson James    
December 3    To Virginia Clark Waring    
December 8    To Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley    
December 11    To Elizabeth Boott    
December 11    To Grace Norton    
December 11    To Dr. James John Garth Wilkinson    
December 12, [1883 or 1885]    To Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley    
December 12, [1883 or 1885]    To Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley    
December 13    To Circe    
[15 December 1883]    To Dr. James John Garth Wilkinson    
December 17    To Alice Stopford Green    
December 26    To Editors of the <i>Galaxy</i>    
December 26    To Edmund Gosse    

1884
January [1-29]    To Mary Augusta Arnold Ward    
January 6    To Mary Morton Hartpence Sands    
January 7    To Alice Stopford Green    
January 15    To Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley    
January 16    To Juliet Creed, Lady Pollock    
January 16    To William Ralston Shedden-Ralston    
January 19    To Grace Norton    
January 24    To Mary Morton Hartpence Sands    
January 25    To William James    
January 29    To Frederick Macmillan    

Biographical Register    
General Editors’ Note    
Works Cited    
Index    

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