The letters of Henry James

Abstract

For many years there has been a need for a really comprehensive edition of Henry James's letters. Only a relatively small proportion of those he wrote have found their way into print, and those mostly in books and journals which are not easily accessible.1 Percy Lubbock's 1920 collection has remained the standard one for far too long because it has helped to perpetuate an image of James as a refined socialite, fastidious often to the point of absurdity. This was partly deliberate (Lubbock carefully edited out sections of the letters) and partly the inevitable result of many letters being simply unavailable. Leon Edel's 1956 selection and now his definitive collected edition should mark the end once and for all of this one-sided view of James.2 Although Professor Edel's collection is not complete (it omits seven letters from the 1920 edition), it does reveal many aspects of James which needed emphasis : his hard-headed approach to business, for example, and tendency to haggle for the best price for his works; or his constant worrying about money which led him to send his father itemized lists of his expenses, always with the explanation that his experiences were so much capital laid up against his future career. The first volume of these letters covers the period (most importantly between 1869 and 1875) when James was trying to decide where he wanted to live. They show him weighing up the different possibilities of life in Europe and America, and his famous reflexion that it is a * complex fate ' to be an American comes out of his strong sense that American culture is constantly referring to Europe in a way which virtually compels comparison between the two civilizations as a moral obligation. When James finally decided to take up residence in Europe it was clearly a personal relief to him as well as a realistic gesture in yielding to the cultural pull of the Old World. His excitement and confidence at the choice come out in the first letter

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