The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1855–1872 – Volume 1

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 on art, literature, and criticism—this edition will be an indispensable resource for students of James and of American and English literature, culture, and criticism. It will also be essential for research libraries throughout North America and Europe and for scholars who specialize in James, the European novel, and modern literature.

Pierre A. Walker and Greg W. Zacharias have conceived this edition according to the exacting standards of the Modern Language Association’s committee on scholarly editions. The first in the series, this two-volume work includes the letters from James's first extant one to those from 1869 in volume one and the letters from 1869 to 1872 in volume two.

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.