Henry James: Interviews and Recollections

172 Pages·1984·15.727 MB·English

by  Norman Page (eds.)

Henry James
Interviews and Recollections
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HENRY JAMES
Interviews and Recollections
Edited by
Norman Page
M
MACMILLAN
Selection and editorial matter© Norman Page 1984
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984 978-0-333-30946-9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1984 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basings toke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Filmset by Vantage Photosetting Co Ltd
Eastleigh and London
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Henry James: interviews and recollections.
1. James, Henry, 1843-1916
Criticism and interpretation
I. Page, Norman
813' .4 PS2124
ISBN 978-1-349-17468-3 ISBN 978-1-349-17466-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17466-9
Contents
Acknowledgements
Vlll
Introduction
XI
A Henry James Chronology XIX
INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS
PART I IMPRESSIONS
'Pleasure under Difficulties' Alice james 3
'A Very Earnest Fellow' William Dean Howells 4
'The American James' William Dean Howells 5
First Meeting Edmund Gosse 7
A Child's View of Henry James Compton Mackenzie 10
'The Demoralisation of English Society' Alice James 12
'Remarkably Unremarkable' W. Graham Robertson 14
'Divinely Interesting' William Dean Howells 15
A Non-literary Intimacy Ford Madox Ford 16
James's Friendships Hugh Walpole 22
James and 'the Conformities' Edith Wharton 26
'The Strange Alchemy of his Genius' Ella Hepworth Dixon 28
'Carrying Lucidity to Dazzling Point' Edward Marsh 31
'Great Individuality' Arnold Bennett 34
PART II PLACES AND PEOPLE
James in Paris William Rothenstein 39
James in Italy Mrs Humphry Ward 39
America Revisited Elizabeth jordan 43
A Weekend in Cambridge Geoffrey Keynes 45
James on Zola Henry Hyndman 50
On Gissing and Meredith Sydney Water/ow 51
VI CONTENTS
James on Ellen Terry Edmund Gosse 53
James and Belloc: an Encounter G. K. Chesterton 54
James on Max Beerbohm Edmund Gosse 57
PART III OCCASIONS
The American is Staged Alice James 61
The First Night of Guy Domville H. G. Wells 63
'An Exhibition of Brutality' F. Anstey 66
Guy Domville: the Aftermath Edmund Gosse 69
A Visit to Miss Pater RichardJ ennings 71
The Genesis of The Turn of the Screw E. F. Benson 72
'Henry James at Dinner' Elizabeth Jordan 74
James Has his HairCut J. M. Barrie 76
James Wishes He Were Popular Alfred Sutro 77
James at a Cricket Match Reginald Blomfield 78
PART IV LIFE AT RYE
'The Mayor-Elect of Rye' Edmund Gosse 83
James at Home Mrs]. T. Fields 85
A Visit to Lamb House (January 1900) A. C. Benson 87
'Genial Nebulosity' E. F. Benson 89
'I Have Lost Touch with my Own People' Hamlin Garland 91
James at Work Theodora Bosanquet 95
James Orders Marmalade Compton Mackenzie 1O S
PART V CONVERSATION
'Wholly Individual' E. F. Benson 111
'Always the Lion' C. Lewis Hind 113
'An Extraordinary Candour' Elizabeth Jordan 114
James on Intolerance Raymond Blathwayt 115
James Asks the Way Edith Wharton 117
Talking like a Book G. W. E. Russell 119
Meetings with James (1901-15) A. C. Benson 120
'A Kind of Mutual Agony' Muriel Draper 125
'Magnifying the Minute' Desmond MacCarthy 128
James Discourses 'in the Public Street' Virginia Woolf 133
James Addresses the Young Hugh Walpole 134
James on Tennyson, Shakespeare and George Sand John Bailey 135
CONTENTS Vll
'As If He Were Reading Proof' W. L. Phelps 136
'In Great Form' Max Beerbohm 139
James Reads Poetry Edith Wharton 140
PART VI THE WAR AND THE END
'The Angina Pectoris ... Unrelenting' Edmund Gosse 145
James and England Logan Pearsall Smith 145
'Uncontrollable Anger' Mrs Belloc Lowndes 150
'Transfigured' Edmund Gosse 151
'A Beau Geste' Mrs Humphry Ward 153
The Order of Merit James S. Bain 154
James's Funeral Edmund Gosse 155
Index 156
Acknowledgements
The editor and publishers wish to thank the following who have kindly
given permission for the use of copyright material:
George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, for the extract from Looking
Down the Years by Raymond Blathwayt.
Constable & Co. Ltd, for the extract from Max by David Cecil.
Dodd, Mead & Co. Inc., for the extract from The Diary of Alice James,
edited by Leon Edel.
Faber & Faber Ltd, for the extract from Experiment in Autobiography:
Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain, by H. G. Wells.
Hamish Hamilton Ltd, for the extracts from Time Was by W. Graham
Robertson, and A Number of People by Edward Marsh.
David Higham Associates Ltd, on behalf of the Literary Estate of Ford
Madox Ford, for the extract from Thus to Revisit: Some Reminiscences.
The Hogarth Press Ltd, on behalf of the Literary Estate of Theodora
Bosanquet, for the extract from Henry James at Work, and the Literary
Estate of Virginia Woolf, for the extract from The Flight of the Mind: The
Letters of Virginia Woolf, vol. 1: 1888-1912, edited by Nigel Nicolson.
Mrs Isobel Garland Lord and Mrs Constance Garland Doyle, for the
extract from Roadside Meetings by the late Hamlin Garland.
The MacNaughton Lowe Representation, for the extract from 'Henry
James: a Reminiscence' by Hugh Walpole.
The Mark Twain Quarterly, for the extract from the article 'Henry James
at Dinner' by Elizabeth Jordan (1943).
John Murray (Publishers) Ltd, for the extract from John Bailey,
1864-1931: Letters and Diaries.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
The Society of Authors, as the Literary Representative of the Estate of
Sir Compton Mackenzie, for the extract from 'Henry James' in Life and
Letters Today.
A. P. Watt Ltd, on behalf of the Executors of the Estate of E. F. Benson,
for the extracts from As We Were and Final Edition, and on behalf of Miss
D. E. Collins, for the extract from Autobiography by G. K. Chesterton.
Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright-holders but if any
have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to
make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.