Henry James and Edith Wharton: Letters : 1900-1915

by Henry James, Edith Wharton

Uses the correspondence between the two American writers to trace the development of their friendship

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

412 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

Henry James was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.
He is best known for his novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between émigré Americans, the English, and continental Europeans, such as The Portrait of a Lady. His later works, such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl were increasingly experimental. In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often wrote in a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche. For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to Impressionist painting.
His novella The Turn of the Screw 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 wrote other highly regarded ghost stories, such as "The Jolly Corner".
James published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography, and plays. Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man, and eventually settled in England, becoming a British citizen in 1915, a year before his death. James 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."

Reviews

[Beau Daignault · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing collection of letters, perfectly introduced by Prof. Powers.

Sad, that James burned all his papers while in a funk, or we would see more of the Wharton side of the correspondence.

[Olivia]

…wish he hadn’t burned nearly all of her letters!!

[Roanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

99% of these letters are from James' pen; He's a prig and a pedant and I never warmed up to him or his correspondence, so this was a tough slog.