Complete Letters of Henry James, 1884–1886

Henry James (1843–1916) was an American author and literary critic. He wrote some two dozen novels, including The Portrait of a Lady and The Golden Bowl, and left behind more than ten thousand letters.Michael Anesko is a professor in the Department of English and in the American Studies Program at Pennsylvania State University. He is a general editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James and author of Henry James and Queer Filiation: Hardened Bachelors of the Edwardian Era.Greg W. Zacharias is a professor in the Department of English and the director of the Center for Henry James Studies at Creighton University. He is editor of the Henry James Review and of A Companion to Henry James.Katie Sommer has been associate editor of the Complete Letters of Henry James series since 2007 and has worked on the Henry James letters project since 2001.

• Acknowledgments    Symbols and Abbreviations    Chronology    Errata    1885December 24    To Theodore E. Child    December 29    To Henrietta Reubell    1886January 1    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    January 5    To Archibald Philip Primrose, Lord Rosebery    January 7    To Elizabeth Boott    January 11    To Mrs. Pfeiffer    January 13    To Mrs. Pfeiffer    January 21    To Edward Tyas Cook    January 23    To Edward Tyas Cook    January 25    To Frederick Macmillan    January 28    To Edmund Gosse    January 31    To Mr. Pfeiffer    February 2    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    February 4    To Robert Louis Stevenson    February 6    To Edwin Lawrence Godkin    February 7    To Grace Norton    February 11    To Maria Theresa Villiers Earle    February 12    To Mary Smith Mundella    February 22    To Elizabeth Boott    February 22    To Francis Boott    February 25    To Lady Elizabeth Eberstadt Lewis    February 26    To Lady Elizabeth Eberstadt Lewis    March 3    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    March 3    To Edward Lee Childe    March 8    To Edith Russell, Lady Playfair    March 9    To William James    March 11    To Henrietta Reubell    March 12    To Edwin Lawrence Godkin    c. March 14 August 28     To Sir John Forbes Clark    c. March 14 August 28     To Lady Constance Wilhelmina Frances Leslie    March 14    To George Du Maurier    March 17    To Elizabeth Boott    March 18    To Edmund Gosse    March 18    To Mary James Wilkinson Mathews    March 19 August 27     To Louisa and Mary Wilhelmina Lawrence    March 19    To Laurence Alma-Tadema    March 26    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    March 27 or April 3, 10, or 17     To Robert Louis and Frances Van de Grift Stevenson    March 29 or April 5 or 12     To Sidney Colvin    March 29 or April 5 or 12     To Frances Van de Grift Stevenson    March 29    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    March 29    To Emma Wilkinson Pertz    April 2    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    April 7    To Ellen “Nellie” Epps Gosse    April 7    To William James    April 7    To Emma Wilkinson Pertz    April 8    To Margaret Oliphant    April 13    To Catharine Walsh    April 16    To William Jones Hoppin    April 18    To Frances Van de Grift Stevenson    April 21    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    April 22    To Margaret Oliphant    April 26    To Alfred Lyttelton    April 29    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    May 1886    To Edmund Yates    May 3    To Anne Benson Skepper Procter    May 10    To Mary Morton Hartpence Sands    May 13    To Mrs. Phelps    May 16    To Lady Elizabeth Eberstadt Lewis    May 19    To James Bryce    May 19    To Henrietta Reubell    May 19    To Laurence Alma-Tadema    May 21    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    May 25    To Francis Boott    May 27    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    May 29    To Mary James Wilkinson Mathews    June 5    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    June 10    To Lady Isabella Augusta Persse Gregory    June 10    To Miss Townley    June 13    To Catharine Walsh    June 13    To William James    June 15    To Marion Langdon    June 18     To Frederick Macmillan    June 24    To Frederick Macmillan    June 26    To Lady Elizabeth Eberstadt Lewis    June 28    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    July 5    To Robert Underwood Johnson    July 7    To Thomas Bailey Aldrich    July 12    To Robert Underwood Johnson    July 14    To Ariana Randolph Wormeley Curtis    July 16    To Robert Louis Stevenson    July 16    To Grace Norton    July 23    To Robert Underwood Johnson    July 25    To Robert Underwood Johnson    July 30    To Robert Louis Stevenson    August 5     To George Du Maurier    August 7     To Edmund Gosse    August 12    To Elizabeth Boott    August 12     To Edmund Gosse    August 15    To Francis Boott    August 28    To Edmund Gosse    August 28    To Frederick Locker-Lampson    September 4    To James Russell Lowell    c. September 8 c. October 1 1886    To Edmund Gosse    September 10, 11    To William James    September 12    To Lady Jane O’Meara Simon    September 14    To Julian Russell Sturgis    September 20    To Frederick Macmillan    September 20    To Julian Russell Sturgis    September 27    To Houghton, Mifflin and Company    September 28    To Robert Underwood Johnson    September 29    To Henry White    October 1     To Florence Eveleen Olliffe Bell    October 2    To Houghton, Mifflin and Company    October 8    To Houghton, Mifflin and Company    October 12    To Houghton, Mifflin and Company    October 13     To Margaret Oliphant    October 13    To Archibald Philip Primrose, Lord Rosebery    October 18    To Elizabeth Boott    October 19    To William Dean Howells    October 20    To Katharine de Kay Bronson    October 21    To Isabella Stewart Gardner    October 22    To Edmund Gosse    October 22    To Frederick Macmillan    October 25    To Edmund Gosse    October 25    To Robert Underwood Johnson    October 25 188687 or 189094    To Elizabeth “Lily” Gaskell Norton    October 26    To Isabella Stewart Gardner    October 26    To Edmund Gosse    October 28    To Carlo Placci    October 29    To Edmund Gosse    October 30    To Catharine Walsh    November 3     To Edmund Gosse    November 3     To Elizabeth “Dolly” Yates Thompson    November 4    To Francis Boott    November 4    To Katharine de Kay Bronson    November 5    To Isabella Stewart Gardner    November 5    To Robert Louis Stevenson    November 8     To Edmund Gosse    November 9    To Edwin Lawrence Godkin    November 12    To Elizabeth “Lily” Millet    November 12    To Henrietta Reubell    November 12    To Robert Louis Stevenson    November 13    To William James    November 16    To Katharine de Mattos    November 16    To Katharine Peabody Loring    November 16    To James Russell Lowell    November 17    To Frederick Locker-Lampson    November 20    To Ellen “Nellie” Epps Gosse    November 25    To Mrs. Simpson    November 26    To Francis Boott    November 27     To Florence Eveleen Olliffe Bell    December 1    To Henry Alden    December 1    To Violet Paget    December 1    To Robert Louis Stevenson    December 6    To Katharine de Kay Bronson    December 6    To Lady Louisa Erskine Wolseley    December 6    To Charles Eliot Norton    December 7    To Grace Norton    December 7    To William Dean Howells    December 11, 18, or 25 1886; April 9, 16, 23, or 30 1887; or May 7, 14, or 21 1887    To Emma Wilkinson Pertz    December 19    To William Archer    December 19    To Robert Louis Stevenson    December 23    To William James and Alice Howe Gibbens James    December 24    To John Milton Hay    December 31    To Linda White Mazini Villari    Biographical Register    General Editors’ Note    Works Cited    Index

"Michael Anesko and Gregory W. Zacharias's achievement amounts to a culmination; they have given us authoritative editions comprising all James’s extant letters, complete with helpful contextual information."-Rafael Walker, Edith Wharton Review Praise for The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1878–1880, volumes 1 & 2  “Michael Anesko’s superb introduction to both volumes places James’s letters in these crucial years in the context of James’s literary works and the broader social history in which they were produced. . . . These new volumes of The Complete Letters of Henry James deserve our admiration for their scholarly rigor and the teamwork required not only of the volume editors and Michael Anesko but also of the associate editors, editorial assistants, and advisory group of this monumental project. . . . These handsome volumes . . . [are] extraordinary resources.”-John Carlos Rowe, Resource for American Literary Study Praise for earlier volumes in The Complete Letters of Henry James series  “Reading [these] edited letters is a delight. The transcriptions allow one to read fluidly rather than haltingly, preserving the rhythm and tone of the original communications together with their content. The explanatory notes do a superb job of contextualizing the letters and identifying references and allusions within them. I could not help but admire the astonishing discernment and scholarship manifested in this volume.”-Sarah Wadsworth, professor of English at Marquette University  “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)  “This latest volume of the Complete Letters represents, no less than its forebears, an inestimable contribution to readers hitherto obliged to hunt down James’s letters in various selections or scattered archives, and deserves to be greeted with the same jubilant chorus of praise and gratitude.”-Alicia Rix, Times Literary Supplement