Containing letters written between September 2, 1879, and May 14, 1880, this second volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1878-1880 documents the full establishment of Henry James as a professional writer and critic on both sides of the Atlantic, as James publishes the novel Confidence and the literary biography Hawthorne and begins work on Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady. James also visits Paris, Florence, Rome, and Naples; begins his friendship with Constance Fenimore Woolson; and deepens his attachment to London and to his friends and acquaintances there.

About the Author

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.

Pierre A. Walker is a professor of English at Salem State University. He is the editor of Henry James on Culture: Collected Essays on Politics and the American Social Scene (Nebraska, 1999).

Greg W. Zacharias is a professor of English at Creighton University, where he directs the Center for Henry James Studies. He is the editor of A Companion to Henry James and coeditor of Tracing Henry James.

Reviews
Praise for earlier volumes in The Complete Letters of Henry James series:
"This edition is not just notable for its astonishing ambition, however; even at this early stage, it must also be reckoned a signal achievement. By every measure, the volumes we have so far are simply outstanding in every major respect. The books are physically beautiful inside and out; Walker and Zacharias have edited the letters to within an inch of their lives. . . . The result is an embarrassment of critical and biographical riches."-Bruce Bawer, New Criterion
"The letters collected in these elegant three volumes, edited by Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias, cover the period in which Henry James became Henry James. . . . [An] extraordinary job of editing. . . . 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
"Rippling through these letters are the first imaginative stirrings of one of the greatest fiction and travel writers in the language. [James] was also one of the most entertaining-and prolific-correspondents. . . . These are richly enthralling letters."-Peter Kemp, Sunday Times (London)
"The textual editing of the letters is fantastically thorough, every blot, deletion, insertion, and misspelling being lucidly presented in the text itself and further described in endnotes to each letter; for the reader this evokes the dash and spontaneity of James's pen, and for the scholar it clarifies every possible ambiguity caused by that dash. . . . The letters themselves are so vivid, funny, and revealing that [the edition] is already indispensable."-Alan Hollinghurst, Guardian

"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
"Like earlier releases in the ambitious Complete Letters of Henry James series, this richly rewarding compilation is well annotated and scrupulously edited."-J. J. Benardete, Choice
"For a snapshot of nineteenth-century Europe-and a sampling of a great novelist's young mind-there is perhaps nothing better than the latest, meticulously edited volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James [series]."-Alexander Theroux, Wall Street Journal
"The volumes are beautiful, solidly put together, with big type, wide margins, and copious annotations."-Edmund V. White, New York Review of Books
"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, enduring setbacks and barren spells, but already showing the impressive resilience, wisdom, and wit that were the foundations of his astonishing career."-Philip Horne, Daily Telegraph




Book Information
ISBN 9780803269859
Author Henry James
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press