Henry James

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Lore & Background

Henry James was born at 21 Washington Place (near Washington Square) in New York City on 15 April 1843. His parents were Mary Walsh and Henry James Sr., a lecturer and philosopher who had inherited independent means from his father, William James, a farmer from County Cavan, Ireland, who became the second richest man in New York after John Jacob Astor through banking and real estate. Before James was a year old, his father sold the house and took the family to Europe, where they lived in a cottage in Windsor Great Park in England. The family returned to New York in 1845, and James spent much of his childhood between his paternal grandmother's home in Albany and a house on 58 West Fourteenth Street in Manhattan. A painting of a view of Florence by Thomas Cole hung in the front parlour of that house. His education was described by Percy Lubbock as 'extraordinarily haphazard and promiscuous.' Once, a cousin read the first instalment of *David Copperfield* aloud; Henry Junior sneaked down to listen until a scene involving the Murdstones led him to 'loud[ly] sob,' and he was sent back to bed. Between 1855 and 1860, the household travelled to London, Paris, Geneva, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Bonn, and Newport, Rhode Island. In Paris, a tutor, M. Lerambert, had written verse well reviewed by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve. James became fluent in French and had a stutter that manifested only when speaking English. In the summer of 1857, the family set up house at No. 20 Rue Neuve Chaussée in Boulogne-sur-Mer, where Henry was a regular customer at an English lending library. In autumn 1857, Henry Senior wrote that Henry 'is a devourer of libraries, and an immense writer of novels and dramas.' In 1860, the family returned to Newport, where James befriended Thomas Sergeant Perry and painter John La Farge, who introduced him to Balzac—James later called Balzac his 'greatest master.' In July 1861, James visited an encampment of wounded Union soldiers at Portsmouth Grove, taking walks and having conversations; he later compared this to Walt Whitman's experience as a volunteer nurse. In autumn 1861, James received an injury, probably to his back, while fighting a fire, which made him unfit for military service in the Civil War. His younger brothers Garth Wilkinson and Robertson both served, with Garth Wilkinson serving as an officer in the 54th Massachusetts. In 1864, the family moved to Boston. James attended Harvard Law School in 1862 but realized he was not interested in law. He formed lifelong friendships with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., James T. Fields, and Annie Adams Fields. In 1865, Louisa May Alcott dined with the James family and wrote that 'Henry Jr. ... was very friendly. Being a literary youth he gave me advice, as if he had been eighty, and I a girl.' His first published work was a review, 'Miss Maggie Mitchell in Fanchon the Cricket,' in 1863; his first short story, 'A Tragedy of Error,' was published anonymously about a year later. His first literary payment was for an appreciation of Sir Walter Scott's novels for the *North American Review*. In 1871, he published his first novel, *Watch and Ward*, in serial form in the *Atlantic Monthly*. During a 14-month trip through Europe in 1869–70, he met John Ruskin, Charles Dickens, Matthew Arnold, William Morris, and George Eliot. Rome impressed him profoundly: 'Here I am then in the Eternal City... At last—for the first time—I live!' He attempted to support himself as a freelance writer in Rome and then secured a position as Paris correspondent for the *New York Tribune* through John Hay. In 1874–75, he published *Transatlantic Sketches*, *A Passionate Pilgrim*, and *Roderick Hudson*. In 1875, he wrote for *The Nation* every week, earning $3 to $10 for brief paragraphs, $12 to $25 for book reviews, and $25 to $40 for travel articles. In fall 1875, he moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris, where he met Flaubert, Zola, Daudet, Maupassant, Turgenev, and others. He stayed only a year before settling in London.

Reader's Guide

Henry James's significance lies in his role as a transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism. His novels, such as *The Portrait of a Lady* (1881), explore the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans. His later works—*The Wings of the Dove* (1902), *The Ambassadors* (1903), and *The Golden Bowl* (1904)—were increasingly experimental, employing a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid in discussions of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, these late works have been described as Impressionist. His novella *The Turn of the Screw* (1898) has garnered a reputation as the most analysed and ambiguous ghost story in the English language and remains his most widely adapted work in other media. He also wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as 'The Jolly Corner' (1908). James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, he spent much of his life abroad, largely relocating to Europe in his thirties and eventually settling in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916. Jorge Luis Borges said, 'I have visited some literatures of East and West; I have compiled an encyclopedic compendium of fantastic literature; I have translated Kafka, Melville, and Bloy; I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James.'

Did You Know?

• Henry James had a stutter that manifested only when he spoke English; in French, he did not stutter.
• His first published work was a review of a stage performance, 'Miss Maggie Mitchell in Fanchon the Cricket,' published in 1863.
• James received an injury, probably to his back, while fighting a fire in autumn 1861, which made him unfit for military service in the American Civil War.
• He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916.
• Jorge Luis Borges said of James, 'I know of no stranger work than that of Henry James.'