Michael Anesko – författare

This volume attempts to determine the early influence shared between William Dean Howells and Henry James by reconstructing and evaluating documentary evidence of their literary cross-fertilization. Of the 151 letters included in this volume -- most of the extant correspondence between the two men -- only half have been printed elsewhere. All items previously unpublished are letters by James. The selection represents each writer's most significant criticism of the other, providing a valuable tool for historically informed comprehension and appreciation of both men's work.

By combining the techniques of textual criticism and the insights of close reading, Generous Mistakes offers new perspectives not only on two of Henry James's major novels (The Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors) but also on the process by which they became the books we know--or think we know. Through a better understanding of the conditions of production that affected James's author function, we achieve a deeper appreciation of the historical contingencies of his artistry. Closely examining new forms of evidence (even fingerprints), Generous Mistakes contends that authorship is a hybrid construction, a sometimes unpredictable sequence of different forms of practice, each of which contributes meaningfully to the texts we read and analyze. Offering a sustained examination of the 'textual condition' of James's work--going beyond the relatively familiar ground of authorial revision--this study brings into sharper focus the complex and sometimes arbitrary factors that contributed to the making of two masterpieces of modern fiction and to the legend of the master who wrote them.

Recipient of the “Approved Edition” seal from the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Scholarly EditionsThis volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James: 1880–1883 includes 122 letters, 67 of which are published for the first time, written between June 6, 1880, and October 20, 1881. The letters record Henry James’s confirmation of his identity as a London resident, follow his struggles with the complexities of his professional life, and illustrate his closer attention to family and friends. His friends, such as Henry and Clover Adams, and family members, such as his brother, William, view him as their resident Londoner. When his sister, Alice, and her companion, Katharine Loring, travel to Britain, James both supervises Alice’s state of health and also reports on its status to their parents.  The letters show Henry James’s professional life as he shifts away from writing pot-boiling reviews and short fiction toward the greater novels that continue to be associated with him, especially The Portrait of a Lady. We also see James negotiating with publishers and arranging whenever possible simultaneous publication in Britain and the United States in order to maximize his writing income. This volume concludes with James’s much-anticipated return to his native America, buoyed by his completion of The Portrait of a Lady. The journey marked a significant milestone in the author’s life.

Henry James defied posterity to disturb his bones: he was adamant that his legacy be based exclusively on his publications and that his private life and writings remain forever private. Despite this, almost immediately after his death in 1916 an intense struggle began among his family and his literary disciples to control his posthumous reputation, a struggle that was continued by later generations of critics and biographers. Monopolizing the Master gives a blow-by-blow account of this conflict, which aroused intense feelings of jealousy, suspicion, and proprietorship among those who claimed to be the just custodians of James's literary legacy. With an unprecedented amount of new evidence now available, Michael Anesko reveals the remarkable social, political, and sexual intrigue that inspired—and influenced—the deliberate construction of the Legend of the Master.

The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. Widely considered James's first great work of fiction and highly innovative in its narrative techniques, The Portrait of a Lady follows the story of an ardent, idealistic American heroine, Isabel Archer, in a cosmopolitan Europe. It explores individual freedom amidst confining circumstance, romantic choice, and the consequences of disillusionment and betrayal. This edition, based on the most reliable of the work's first book appearances (Macmillan, 1882), provides an authoritative text of one of James's finest long novels, with extensive annotations, a detailed textual history and an analysis of the reasons for its long-held popular appeal. It will be of particular interest not only to James scholars, but also book historians and students of nineteenth-century Anglo-American literature and culture.

The Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James provides, for the first time, a scholarly edition of a major writer whose work continues to be read, quoted, adapted and studied. Widely considered James's first great work of fiction and highly innovative in its narrative techniques, The Portrait of a Lady follows the story of an ardent, idealistic American heroine, Isabel Archer, in a cosmopolitan Europe. It explores individual freedom amidst confining circumstance, romantic choice, and the consequences of disillusionment and betrayal. This edition, based on the most reliable of the work's first book appearances (Macmillan, 1882), provides an authoritative text of one of James's finest long novels, with extensive annotations, a detailed textual history and an analysis of the reasons for its long-held popular appeal. It will be of particular interest not only to James scholars, but also book historians and students of nineteenth-century Anglo-American literature and culture.

Recipient of the Approved Edition seal from the Modern Language Association’s committee on scholarly editionsThis volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1880–1883 includes 178 letters, 98 of which are published for the first time, written from November 1, 1881, to January 1, 1883. The letters record Henry James’s establishment as one of the preeminent professional writers in Britain and the United States and follow James’s return journeys to the United States following the deaths of his parents. This volume concludes with James’s assumption of his role as the executor of his father’s will and thus the de facto head of the family.

This volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883–1884 includes 178 letters, of which 117 are published for the first time, written from January 2, 1883, to January 29, 1884. The letters trace the development of Henry James’s literary career as well as the maturation of his international reputation as a public figure. They also record James’s recovery following the deaths of his parents and brother, the difficult execution of his father’s will, and his return to England from an extended stay in the United States. This volume concludes with James’s continuing efforts to maximize his writing income.

This volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1883–1884 includes 125 letters, of which 72 are published for the first time, written from January 29, 1884, to November 9, 1884. The letters mark Henry James’s confidence and achievements as an internationally important professional writer, including his participation in conceiving and carrying out with editors and publishers complicated plans to distribute his work and maximize his income. James details his work on mid-career novels The Bostonians and The Princess Casamassima as well as work on a number of tales that would help to define his career. This volume concludes with James’s anticipation of the arrival in England from the United States of his sister, Alice, who would never again return to her homeland.

Recipient of the Approved Edition seal from the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Scholarly Editions  This volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1884–1886 includes 179 letters, 94 published for the first time, written between November 11, 1884, and December 21, 1885. The letters mark Henry James’s ongoing efforts to care for his sister, develop his work, strengthen his professional status, build friendships old and new, and maximize his income. James details work on midcareer novels The Bostonians and The Princess Casamassima as well as on tales that would help to define his career. He reveals his close acquaintance with British politics and politicians. This volume opens with Alice James’s arrival in England and concludes with Henry James’s plans to leave his flat in Piccadilly for his new address in De Vere Gardens, Kensington.

Recipient of the Approved Edition seal from the Modern Language Association’s Committee on Scholarly Editions  This second volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1884–1886 contains 156 letters, of which 111 are published for the first time, written from December 24, 1885, to December 31, 1886. These letters mark Henry James’s ongoing efforts to care for his sister, develop his work, strengthen his professional status, build friendships, engage timely political and economic issues, and maximize his income. James details work on his midcareer novel The Princess Casamassima and announces plans for The Tragic Muse. This volume opens with James’s engagement with friends in Britain and France and concludes with his arrival in Italy for a six-month visit.

Henry James Framed is a cultural history of Henry James as a work of art. Throughout his life, James demonstrated an abiding interest in-some would say an obsession with-the visual arts. In his most influential testaments about the art of fiction, James frequently invoked a deeply felt analogy between imaginative writing and painting. At a time when having a photographic carte de visite was an expected social commonplace, James detested the necessity of replenishing his supply or of distributing his autographed image to well-wishing friends and imploring readers. Yet for a man who set the highest premium on personal privacy, James seems to have had few reservations about serving as a model for artists in other media and sat for his portrait a remarkable number of twenty-four times.Surprisingly few James scholars have brought into primary focus those occasions when the author was not writing about art but instead became art himself, through the creative expression of another’s talent. To better understand the twenty-four occasions he sat for others to represent him, Michael Anesko reconstructs the specific contexts for these works’ coming into being, assesses James’s relationships with his artists and patrons, documents his judgments concerning the objects produced, and, insofar as possible, traces the later provenance of each of them.James’s long-established intimacy with the studio world deepened his understanding of the complex relationship between the artist and his sitter. James insisted above all that a portrait was a revelation of two realities: the man whom it was the artist’s conscious effort to reveal and the artist, or interpreter, expressed in the very quality and temper of that effort. The product offered a double vision-the strongest dose of life that art could give, and the strongest dose of art that life could give.

This first volume in The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1887–1888 contains 154 letters, of which 94 are published for the first time, written from early January to December 22, 1887. These letters mark Henry James’s ongoing efforts to care for his sister, develop his work, strengthen his professional status, build friendships, engage timely political and economic issues, and maximize his income. James details work on “The Aspern Papers,” Partial Portraits, and plans The Reverberator. This volume opens with James in the midst of a long sojourn in Italy and concludes with his inquiring about both the status of his essay to the American Copyright League and also the story “The Liar.”

This second volume of The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1887–1888 contains 182 letters, of which 120 are published for the first time, written from late December 1887 to November 19, 1888. These letters continue to mark Henry James’s ongoing efforts to care for his sister, develop his work, strengthen his professional status, build friendships, engage timely political and economic issues, and maximize his income. James details work on The Aspern Papers, The Reverberator, Partial Portraits, and The Tragic Muse. This volume opens with some of James’s social visits, includes the death of longtime friend Lizzie Boott, and concludes with James on the Continent.

This first volume in The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1888–1891 contains 171 letters, of which 119 are published for the first time, written from late November 1888 to April 20, 1890. These letters continue to mark Henry James’s ongoing efforts to care for his sister, develop his work, strengthen his professional status, build friendships, engage with timely political and economic issues, and maximize his income, which included hiring an agent. James details his work on The Tragic Muse, “Mrs. Temperly,” “An Animated Conversation,” “The Solution,” and other fiction. This volume opens with James in France and concludes with James on the Continent. Dee MacCormack introduces the volume, paying close attention to James’s increasing interest in the theater.

The second volume in The Complete Letters of Henry James: 1888–1891 contains 131 letters, of which 80 are published for the first time, written from April 23, 1890, to January 3, 1891. These letters continue to mark Henry James’s ongoing efforts to care for his chronically ill sister, develop his work, strengthen his professional status, and build friendships. They also trace James’s efforts to write for the theater up to the afternoon before the first performance of The American.