Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPraise for earlier volumes in The Complete Letters of Henry James series: “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 books are physically beautiful inside and out; Walker and Zacharias have edited the letters to within an inch of their lives. . . . The result is an embarrassment of critical and biographical riches.”—Bruce Bawer, New Criterion “The letters collected in these elegant three volumes, edited by Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias, cover the period in which Henry James became Henry James. . . . [An] extraordinary job of editing. . . . 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 “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) “The textual editing of the letters is fantastically thorough, every blot, deletion, insertion, and misspelling being lucidly presented in the text itself and further described in endnotes to each letter; for the reader this evokes the dash and spontaneity of James’s pen, and for the scholar it clarifies every possible ambiguity caused by that dash. . . . The letters themselves are so vivid, funny, and revealing that [the edition] is already indispensable.”—Alan Hollinghurst, Guardian “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 “Like earlier releases in the ambitious Complete Letters of Henry James series, this richly rewarding compilation is well annotated and scrupulously edited.”—J. J. Benardete, Choice “For a snapshot of nineteenth-century Europe—and a sampling of a great novelist’s young mind—there is perhaps nothing better than the latest, meticulously edited volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James [series].”—Alexander Theroux, Wall Street Journal “The volumes are beautiful, solidly put together, with big type, wide margins, and copious annotations.”—Edmund V. White, New York Review of Books “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, enduring setbacks and barren spells, but already showing the impressive resilience, wisdom, and wit that were the foundations of his astonishing career.”—Philip Horne, Daily TelegraphTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Symbols and Abbreviations Chronology Errata 1879 September 2 To Delano Alexander Goddard September 14 To Mary Walsh James September 14 To Alexander Macmillan September 14 To Thomas Sergeant Perry [September 15-22] To Isabella Stewart Gardner September 18 To Josiah Holland September 27 To Chatto & Windus September 28 To Alexander Macmillan [early October] To Frances Rollins Morse October 5 To Chatto & Windus October 11 To Henry James Sr. October 13 To Chatto & Windus October 17 To Grace Norton October 19 To Alexander Macmillan October 21 To Alexander Macmillan October 31 To William Dean Howells October 31 To Henry James Sr. November 2 To Thomas Sergeant Perry November 6 To Henrietta Heathorn Huxley November 10 To William James November 18 To Mary Walsh James [November 19] To Julia C. Coster Reubell November 20 To Elizabeth Boott November 26 To Richard Watson Gilder December 7 To Elizabeth Boott December 15 To Theodore Child December 15 To Richard von Hoffmann December 16 To Henry James Sr. December 16 To William James December 19 To Sarah Butler Wister December 20 or 27, 1879, or January 3, 10, 17, 24, or 31, 1880 To Helena de Kay Gilder December 21 To John S. Barron December 21 To Grace Norton December 22 To Frances Rollins Morse December 31 To Elizabeth Boott 1880 January 3 To William Dean Howells January 5 To Alice James January 5 To James Ripley Osgood January 8 To George Abbot James January 11 To Henry James Sr. January 11 To Robertson James January 13 To Louisa Lawrence January 17 To Henry James Sr. January 17 To Grace Norton January 17 To Thomas Sergeant Perry January 19 To John S. Barron January 22 To William Jones Hoppin January 22 To Henrietta Heathorn Huxley January 29 To Isabella Stewart Gardner January 31 To Richard von Hoffmann January 31 To William Dean Howells February 2 To Mary Walsh James February 3 To Helena de Kay Gilder February 4 To Theodore E. Child February 6 To Theodore E. Child February 7 To Anthony John Mundella and Mary Smith Mundella February 9 To Joseph Hatton February 11 To Henrietta Heathorn Huxley February 15 To Henry James Sr. February 16 To Gertrude Barbara Rich Collier Tennant February 17 To Theodore E. Child February 22 To Elizabeth Boott February 22 To Thomas Sergeant Perry February 22 To John Russell Young February 26 To Chatto & Windus March 3 To William Jones Hoppin March 9 To Jane Octavia Brookfield March 9 To Mary Walsh James [late March-early May] To Linda White Mazini Villari March 30 To Henry James Sr. March 31 To Charles Eliot Norton April 9 To Grace Norton April 11 To Fanny Hertz April 16 To Sarah Butler Wister April 18 To George Grove April 18 To William Dean Howells April 18 To Thomas Sergeant Perry April 22 To Scribner’s Monthly April 25 To Alice James May 3 To Catharine Walsh May 9 To William James May 14 To John Walter Cross May 14 To Henry James Sr. Supplement Introduction July 26 [1868] To Ticknor & Fields July 29 [1876] To Richard Watson Gilder May 22 [1878] To William Jones Hoppin July 19 [1879] To Elizabeth Eberstadt Lewis Biographical Register Genealogies General Editors’ Note Works Cited Index
Read more less
