Overview
Recipient of the ""Approved Edition"" seal from the Modern Language Association's Committee on Scholarly Editions The Complete Letters of Henry James fills a crucial gap in modern literary studies by presenting in a scholarly edition the complete letters of one of the great novelists and letter writers of the English language. Comprising more than ten thousand letters reflecting on a remarkably wide range of topics-from James's own life and literary projects to broader questions about art, literature, and criticism-this edition is an indispensable resource for students of James and of American and English literature, culture, and criticism as well as for research libraries throughout North America and Europe and for scholars of James, the European novel, and modern literature. This volume is the second of three to include James's letters from 1872 to 1876.
Full Product Details
Author: Henry James ,
Pierre A. Walker ,
Greg W. Zacharias
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Imprint: University of Nebraska Press
Volume:
Dimensions:
Width: 15.90cm
, Height: 3.30cm
, Length: 25.40cm
Weight: 0.835kg
ISBN: 9780803222977
ISBN 10: 0803222971
Pages: 342
Publication Date: 01 November 2009
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
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Reviews
Like earlier releases in the ambitious Complete Letters of Henry James series, this richly rewarding compilation is well annotated and scrupulously edited: in addition to the letters, it includes a brief chronology of the years covered, genealogies of principal named families, and a biographical register of relatively obscure persons mentioned. --J. J./i>--J. J. Benardete Choice (07/01/2010)
The Letters collected in these elegant volumes, edited by Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias, cover periods in which Henry James became Henry James... two things need to be said about this extraordinary job of editing that Walker and Zacharias have done. First, they print James's letters in plain text, reproducing his many misspellings and abbreviations and strike-outs: James wrote quickly and in an almost illegible hand; he blotted many words and yet hardly ever had to struggle for the right ones; his most aphoristic moments appear to have been spontaneous. Second, these letters contain an awful lot of proper names, many of them belonging to those who, like Edmund Tweedy, were obscure at the time and are more so now. Earlier editions of letters by Edel or Philip Horne, among others, have identified most of these figures. This edition gets them all, and both the footnotes and the biographical register at the back of each volume are at once succinct and full. They allow any reader to place and know the people in this busy social world. Michael Gorra, Times Literary Supplement Praise for earlier volumes: These extraordinary, profoundly welcome volumes are the first fruits of an epic undertaking by two heroic American scholars, Pierre Walker and Greg Zacharias ... These early volumes give a wonderfully pleasurable picture of a writer at the beginning of his journey ... Philip Horne, The Daily Telegraph [James's] letters have never before appeared in their entirety. The University of Nebraska Press is attempting slowly, to make up for that fact in a scholarly edition that obviates the need for any other. Times Literary Supplement Rippling through these letters are the first imaginative stirrings of one of the greatest fiction and travel writers in the language. He was also one of the most entertaining--and prolific--correspondents... These are richly enthralling letters. The sooner the next 138 or so volumes appear, the better. Peter Kemp, Sunday Times Some of the letters from Italy are small masterpieces of description; they are alert and sensitive and full of astute judgements. London Review of Books enthralling early letters from a genius in the making. Culture (Supplement to the Sunday Times), The general public has been deprived of James's full epistolary record until now... All the more reason to celebrate the present volumes, handsomely produced and extensively and intelligently annotated. Peter Brooks, Bookforum
Praise for earlier volumes: These extraordinary, profoundly welcome volumes are the first fruits of an epic undertaking by two heroic American scholars, Pierre Walker and Greg Zacharias ... these early volumes give a wonderfully pleasurable picture of a writer at the beginning of his journey ... Philip Horne, The Daily Telegraph [James's] letters have never before appeared in their entirety. The University of Nebraska Press is attempting slowly, to make up for that fact in a scholarly edition that obviates the need for any other. Times Literary Supplement Rippling through these letters are the first imaginative stirrings of one of the greatest fiction and travel writers in the language. He was also one of the most entertaining--and prolific--correspondents... These are richly enthralling letters. The sooner the next 138 or so volumes appear, the better. Peter Kemp, Sunday Times Some of the letters from Italy are small masterpieces of description; they are alert and sensitive and full of astute judgements. London Review of Books enthralling early letters from a genius in the making. Culture (Supplement to the Sunday Times), The general public has been deprived of James's full epistolary record until now... All the more reason to celebrate the present volumes, handsomely produced and extensively and intelligently annotated. Peter Brooks, Bookforum
Author Information
Henry James (1843–1916) wrote short stories, plays, literary criticism, and travel essays and is most famous for his many novels, which include The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl. American born, he spent considerable time in England and eventually became a British subject. When he died, he left behind more than ten thousand letters. Pierre A. Walker is a professor of English at Salem State College. He is the editor of Henry James on Culture: Collected Essays on Politics and the American Social Scene, available in a Bison Books edition, and the author of Reading Henry James in French Cultural Contexts. Greg W. Zacharias is a professor of English and the founder and director of the Center for Henry James Studies at Creighton University. He is the author of Henry James and the Morality of Fiction, editor of A Companion to Henry James, and coeditor of Tracing Henry James.
