Alice James

In her lifetime, she never tied the nuptial knot. However, it is reported that her brother William shared a close relationship with her and was also romantically interested in her. This is noted from his mock sonnet that he penned for her and the five sketches that he made of her.

By 1882, she suffered from two major breakdowns. Towards the later end of her life, she suffered from a couple of more nervous breakdowns finally succumbing to breast cancer on March 6, 1892.

Almost a century after her death, in 1980, Jean Strouse published her thoughts, opinion and life in the work titled, ‘Alice James: A Biography’. In it, he portrayed her both as an icon and victim.

Alice James was the youngest of the five children and the only daughter born to Henry James Sr. all her life, she shared a close knit relationship with her brothers and female friends.

Not much is known about her educational qualifications or her academic background and her early life.

Until the death of her parents in 1882, she lived with them.

During this period of time, women were often diagnosed with hysteria. As there was no set list of symptoms for the disease, any disease that a woman had was fit into the symptoms of hysteria and she was no different.

In 1866, she moved to New York to treat herself with therapeutic exercises. Though the technique did bring in some sort of relief, it was temporary by nature. The effect of the disease was such that she felt both suicidal and patricidal.

With a belief that a change of place would help augment her health condition, she moved to England along with her friend Katherine Peabody Loring.

In 1873, at the age of twenty-five, she started teaching history at the Society to Entourage Studies which she continued for three years until 1876. It was a Boston-based correspondence school for women founded by Anna Ticknor.

Aiming to treat herself from the recurring bouts of hysteria, she received electrical massage in 1884. Despite seeking various treatments, she never got significant relief.

Daughter of American theologian Henry James Sr, she was an American diarist who suffered from major nervous disorder