Henry James

Chronology of Henry James’s Life and Work

Henry James was born April 15th 1843 in New York City as the second child of Henry James, Sr. and Mary Robertson Walsh. His brothers were William, Garth Wilkinson and Robertson James. Henry and his brothers were taught by tutors all around the world, once in Paris and London and in different schools between the years 1855-1859. In 1862 he begins to attand Law School in Harvard. “The Story of a Year” is his first signed story and published in the Atlantic Monthly in March 1865. With the beginning of the First World War in 1914 Henry James visits war-wounded soldiers in hospital. There he begins to be involved in war reliefs and writes “The Mind of England at War (New York Sun, August). Therefore he is awarded with the Oder of Merit on January 1916 by George V. During his life he published many novels, short stories, essays, reviews lectures and articles. He died February 1st 1916. Although traveling a lot in his life and living in different places, Henry James’ s ash was buried in America at Cambridge cemetery.

Henry James as a writer

Henry James was an Edwardian, a Victorian and a modernist. He breaks away from Victorian fiction by experimenting with the fictional voice. The last 15 years of James’ life lay in the beginning of a new century and he moved into it with fresh zest and self-generating creativity. The modern novel and modern analytic criticism are influenced by his works. Some of James’s modernist works are: The Jolly Corner (1908), The Sacred Fount (1901), The Outcry (1911), The Ambassadors (1903), The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Golden Bowl (1904).

Sources

Kaplan, Fred: Henry James. The Imagination of Genius. A Biography. Hodder&Stoughton. London [a.o.]: 1992.

Hardy, Barbara: Henry James. The Later Writings. Northcote House Publishers. Plymouth: 1996.

Zacharias, Greg W. ed.: A Companion to Henry James. Wiley Blackwell. 2014.