Henry James

@Short Story Writers, Career and Life

Henry James was an American writer regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism

Apr 15, 1843

DepressionStutteringAmericanWritersNovelistsPlaywrightsShort Story WritersAries Celebrities
Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: April 15, 1843
  • Died on: February 28, 1916
  • Nationality: American
  • Famous: Writers, Novelists, Playwrights, Short Story Writers
  • Siblings: Alice James, William James
  • Known as: Henry James Jr., Henry James, OM, de la vega
  • Universities:
    • Harvard Law School

Henry James born at

New York City

Unsplash
Birth Place

Henry James never married. Some sources state that he was once in love with his cousin Mary Temple who died from tuberculosis. Historians also debate on the probability of James being homosexual.

Unsplash
Personal Life

After living in Britain for several years, he became a naturalized English citizen in 1915. He died on 28 February, 1916, in Chelsea, London.

Unsplash
Personal Life

Henry James was born on 15 April 1843 in New York City, United States, to Mary Walsh and Henry James, Sr. His father, a lecturer and philosopher, was an intelligent man with intellectual interests. Henry had three brothers and one sister.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

He was exposed to scientific and philosophical influences from a young age. Accompanied by his family, he travelled widely, visiting London, Paris, Geneva, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Newport, Rhode Island. Henry received his education primarily from tutors and briefly attended a few schools while the family traveled in Europe.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

The family returned to New Port in 1860. During this time Henry became friends with painter John La Farge, who introduced him to French literature, especially to the works of Balzac.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

He decided to become a lawyer and enrolled at the Harvard Law School when he was 19. However it did not take him long to realize that his true interest lay in literature and not law. Instead of focusing on his studies, he spent his time reading Balzac, Henrik Ibsen, Charles Dickens, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Unsplash
Childhood & Early Life

Henry James began his literary career writing articles, book reviews and short stories. His first short story appeared anonymously in the ‘New York Continental Monthly’ and his first book reviews in the ‘North American Review’ when he was in his early twenties.

Unsplash
Career

Soon he established himself as one of the most skillful writers of short stories in America. He then left America and lived for a time in Paris, France before moving to London, England in 1876. He continued his prolific writing, publishing literary pieces such as ‘The American’ (1877), ‘The Europeans’ (1878), a revision of ‘Watch and Ward’ (1878), ‘French Poets and Novelists’ (1878), and ‘Hawthorne’ (1879).

Unsplash
Career

In 1881, he published his novel ‘The Portrait of a Lady’, which was first published as a serial in ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ and ‘Macmillan's Magazine’. The plot revolves around a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer who inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of scheming by two American expatriates. It is regarded by critics as one of his finest works.

Unsplash
Career

He wrote two novels on social reformers and revolutionaries in the 1880s. ‘The Bostonians’ (1886) is a bittersweet tragicomedy dealing with political activists and the feminist movement while ‘The Princess Casamassima’, also published in 1886, is the story of a bookbinder who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot.

Unsplash
Career

James was also a noted literary critic and a playwright. In 1891 he converted his novel ‘The American’ into a play which enjoyed moderate success. He also wrote several other plays, most of which went unproduced. He could not achieve much success as a playwright and this fact greatly disappointed him even though he was a famed novelist.

Unsplash
Career

His novel, ‘The American’, originally published as a serial in ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ focused on the adventures and misadventures of Christopher Newman, an American businessman on his first tour of Europe. The novel was also made into a successful play.

Unsplash
Major Works

Henry James’ best known work is ‘The Portrait of a Lady’, the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer who inherits a large amount of money and falls victim to two scheming American expatriates. The novel explores themes of personal freedom, responsibility, and betrayal.

Unsplash
Major Works

Another one of his most popular works is ‘Daisy Miller’, a novella which portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a sophisticated man. The work which serves as a psychological description of the mind of a young woman contains many symbolisms and allegories.

Unsplash
Major Works