Henry James, selected letters

492 Pages·1987·14.437 MB·English

by  James, Henry, Edel, Leon, James, Henry

HENRY JAMES
Selected Letters

Selected Letters
E D I T ED BY
LEON EDEL
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
AND LONDON, ENGLAND 1987
Copyright © 1974, 1975, 1980, 1984, 1987, Leon Edel, Editorial
Copyright © 1974, 1975, 1980, 1984, 1987, Alexander R. James,
James copyright material
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 32 ι
This book is printed on acid-free paper, and its binding materials
have been chosen for strength and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
James, Henry, 1843-1916.
Henry James, selected letters.
Includes index.
ι. James, Henry, 1843-1916—Correspondence.
2. Authors, American—20th century—Correspondence.
1. Edel, Leon, 1907- . II. Title. III. Title:
Selected letters.
PS2123.A4 1987 813'.4 [B] 87-8543
ISBN 0-674-38793-7 (alk. paper)
The best letters seem to me the most delightful
of all written things.
—Henry James
I delight in a palpable imaginable visitable
past . . . the poetry of the thing outlived and
lost and gone.
—Preface to "The Aspern Papers"

Acknowledgments
The selected letters published in this volume have been drawn from
many sources in the United States and abroad, public institutions and
private owners, as well as collections in universities and other librar-
ies. The source of each letter is given at the top, beneath the name of
the correspondent: Ms stands for the handwritten letter, Ts for type-
script, Mf for microfilm. "Ms Unknown" means that a copy of the let-
ter was seen by me but I no longer know its whereabouts—since letters
change hands, are lost, or simply disappear, sometimes to be found at a
later date. "Ms Private" means the holograph is in private hands. In
some instances, with the consent of the private owners, I have given
their names. "Dictated Ts" in the case of Henry James means a letter
dictated by him directly to the typist seated at the typewriter, and usu-
ally signed by him. There are other typed letters that are copies, the
originals of which may no longer exist.
Following are the institutions or collections whose documents I
have used and to which I wish to express my thanks for access to
Henry James documents during many years.
Barrett C. Waller Barrett Collection, University of
Virginia
Berg Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of
English and American Literature, New York
Public Library
Bodleian Bodleian Library, Oxford
British Library formerly the British Museum, London
Brown John Hay Library, Brown University
Chester Chester Public Records Office, U.K.
Colby Colby College Library
vii
Acknowledgments
Columbia Butler Library, Columbia University
Congress Library of Congress
Countway Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine,
Boston
Dartmouth Baker Library, Dartmouth College
Duke Duke University Library
Gardner Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Glasgow University of Glasgow Library
Harvard The Houghton Library, Harvard University
Hillstead Hillstead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut
Huntington Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino,
California
Leeds Brotherton Library, University of Leeds
Louvenjoul Louvenjoul Collection, Chantilly, France
Lubbock Typescripts in the Houghton Library
assembled by Percy Lubbock for his
two-volume edition of The Letters of
Henry James (1920)
Mass. Historical Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston
Morgan Trustees of the Morgan Library, New York
N.Y. Historical New York Historical Society
NYPL Manuscript Division, New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden
Foundations
Princeton Princeton University Library
Royal Literary Fund Royal Literary Fund, London
Scotland National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
Taylor Robert H. Taylor Collection, Princeton
University
Texas Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
University of Texas at Austin
Vaux Robertson James Archive, Berkeley, California
Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University
I wish to thank in particular Lynn Jachney, for communicating the
early letter found among her family papers (Letter 4); Adeline R. Tint-
ner, for making available the original of the letter to Fanny Prothero
viii
Acknowledgments
about Stark Young (Letter 179); and the Royal Literary Fund of Brit-
ain (and in particular Janet Adam Smith) for the letter about Mrs.
Dickens (Letter 120). I was much indebted to Robert H. Taylor during
his lifetime for certain James letters and wish to thank Alexander D.
Wainwright of the Princeton Library for help with the Taylor collec-
tion. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin kindly provided its recently acquired letter to
John Lane and one to Morton Fullerton. Lyall H. Powers, the editor of
HJ's letters to Edith Wharton, generously helped me with the texts of
those included here. My debts to many others are listed in the four-
volume edition from which the present selection is mainly drawn. Not
the least of my debts are to Alexander R. James, the novelist's grand-
nephew, and to my editor at Harvard University Press, Camille Smith,
who worked with me on earlier volumes and on this one.
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