Henry James Essay Writing

Many of his later novels failed to recoup their advances, and latterly he made more money from short stories placed in magazines.Even in his lifetime, James had a reputation as a difficult writer for clever readers.In January 1916, James was awarded the Order of Merit for services to literature over a 50-year career, during which he had written some 20 novels and over 100 short stories. He had a history of heart trouble and depression, and he found the anxiety and grief of wartime exhausting. One hundred years later, James’s cultural standing is higher than ever.

Many of his later novels failed to recoup their advances, and latterly he made more money from short stories placed in magazines.Even in his lifetime, James had a reputation as a difficult writer for clever readers.In January 1916, James was awarded the Order of Merit for services to literature over a 50-year career, during which he had written some 20 novels and over 100 short stories. He had a history of heart trouble and depression, and he found the anxiety and grief of wartime exhausting. One hundred years later, James’s cultural standing is higher than ever.

His private life has been scrutinised and reinvented repeatedly in biography and bio-fiction – sometimes more creatively than accurately.

His fiction and letters – over 10,000 still exist – are both in the process of being re-edited and republished.

Henry Sr., the son of an Irish immigrant, was one of thirteen children, born in Albany, New York.

By the time his own children were born, he had inherited a great deal of wealth from his father, and the James family.

His brother’s widow Alice braved the hazardous war-time Atlantic crossing to be by his bedside.

Devoted literary friends such as Edmund Gosse and Edith Wharton visited or kept in touch.

James knew him, and wrote to a mutual friend that this loss was so “stupid and hideous” that one could only “stare through one’s tears”.

James’s piece formed the introduction to Brooke’s travel essays, Letters From America, and was also a response to the mythology that sprang up around Brooke immediately after his death.

In fact, this reputation was part of his value in the magazine market, where his name on the contents page added a touch of literary class – whether his stories were read or not.

Yet in a world of cut-throat literary reputations, the author of The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw and The Golden Bowl has survived while contemporaries like Sarah Grand, Hall Caine and Marie Corelli who outsold him spectacularly have all but vanished.