Description:
Containing letters written between October 3, 1878, and August 30, 1879, this volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James reveals Henry James establishing control of his writing career and finding confidence in himself not only as a professional author on both sides of the Atlantic but also as an important social figure in London.
In this volume of 114 letters, of which 58 are published for the first time, we see James learning to negotiate, pitting one publisher against another, and working to secure simultaneous publication in the United States and England. He establishes a working relationship with Frederick Macmillan and with the Macmillan publishing house, cultivates reviewers, basks in the success--and notoriety--of his novella Daisy Miller, and visits Alfred Tennyson and George Eliot, among others. James also produces essays on political subjects and continues to publish reviews and travel essays. Perhaps most important, James negotiates terms for and begins planning The Portrait of a Lady.
Review Quotes: "The postwar decades saw the wholesale reclamation of James as an American author and the institution of a veritable industry of James scholarship. As a manifestation of and resource for that scholarship, the series is exemplary in its meticulous attention to the detail of what James wrote. . . . Despite the unconventional look of this text, the edition is highly readable; and the letters are supplemented by ample explanatory notes, as well as illustrations."--Guy Davidson, Australasian Journal of American Studies