Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874 (147 page)

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Page 885
riding on the Campagna. Encounters Matthew Arnold in April 1873 at Story's. Moves from Rome hotel to rooms of his own. Continues writing and now earns enough to support himself. Leaves Rome in June, spends summer in Bad Homburg. In October goes to Florence, where William joins him. They also visit Rome, William returning to America in March. In Baden-Baden JuneAugust and returns to America September 4, with
Roderick Hudson
all but finished.
1875
Roderick Hudson
serialized in
Atlantic Monthly
from January (published by Osgood at the end of the year). First book,
A Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales,
published January 31. Tries living and writing in New York, in rooms at 111 E. 25th Street. Earns $200 a month from novel installments and continued reviewing, but finds New York too expensive.
Transatlantic Sketches,
published in April, sells almost 1,000 copies in three months. In Cambridge in July decides to return to Europe; arranges with John Hay, assistant to the publisher, to write Paris letters for the
New York Tribune.
187576
Arriving in Paris in November, he takes rooms at 29 Rue de Luxembourg (since renamed Cambon). Becomes friend of Ivan Turgenev and is introduced by him to Gustave Flaubert's Sunday parties. Meets Edmond de Goncourt, Émile Zola, G. Charpentier (the publisher), Catulle Mendès, Alphonse Daudet, Guy de Maupassant, Ernest Renan, Gustave Doré. Makes friends with Charles Sanders Peirce, who is in Paris. Reviews (unfavorably) the early Impressionists at the Durand-Ruel gallery. By midsummer has received $400 for
Tribune
pieces, but editor asks for more Parisian gossip and James resigns. Travels in France during July, visiting Normandy and the Midi, and in September crosses to San Sebastian, Spain, to see a bullfight (I thought the bull, in any case, a finer fellow than any of his tormentors). Moves to London in December, taking rooms at 3 Bolton Street, Piccadilly, where he will live for the next decade.
1877
The American
published. Meets Robert Browning and George du Maurier. Leaves London in midsummer for visit to Paris and then goes to Italy. In Rome rides again in Campagna and hears of an episode that inspires Daisy
 
Page 886
Miller. Back in England, spends Christmas at Stratford with Fanny Kemble.
1878
Publishes first book in England,
French Poets and Novelists
(Macmillan). Appearance of Daisy Miller in
Cornhill Magazine,
edited by Leslie Stephen, is international success, but by publishing it abroad loses American copyright and story is pirated in U.S.
Cornhill
also prints An International Episode.
The Europeans
is serialized in
Atlantic.
Now a celebrity, he dines out often, visits country houses, gains weight, takes long walks, fences, and does weight-lifting to reduce. Elected to Reform Club. Meets Tennyson, George Meredith, and James McNeill Whistler. William marries Alice Howe Gibbens.
1879
Immersed in London society (dined out during the past winter 107 times!). Meets Edmund Gosse and Robert Louis Stevenson, who will later become his close friends. Sees much of Henry Adams and his wife, Marian (Clover), in London and later in Paris. Takes rooms in Paris, SeptemberDecember.
Confidence
is serialized in
Scribner's
and published by Chatto & Windus.
Hawthorne
appears in Macmillan's English Men of Letters series.
188081
Stays in Florence MarchMay to work on
The Portrait of a Lady.
Meets Constance Fenimore Woolson, American novelist and grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper. Returns to Bolton Street in June, where William visits him.
Washington Square
serialized in
Cornhill Magazine
and published in U.S. by Harper & Brothers (Dec. 1880).
The Portrait of a Lady
serialized in
Macmillan's Magazine
(Oct. 1880Nov. 1881) and
Atlantic Monthly;
published by Macmillan and Houghton, Mifflin (Nov. 1881). Publication both in United States and in England yields him the thenlarge income of $500 a month, though book sales are disappointing. Leaves London in February for Paris, the south of France, the Italian Riviera, and Venice, and returns home in July. Sister Alice comes to London with her friend Katharine Loring. James goes to Scotland in September.
188183
In November revisits America after absence of six years. Lionized in New York. Returns to Quincy Street for Christmas and sees ailing brother Wilky for the first time
 
Page 887
in ten years. In January visits Washington and the Henry Adamses and meets President Chester A. Arthur. Summoned to Cambridge by mother's death January 29 (the sweetest, gentlest, most beneficent human being I have ever known). All four brothers are together for the first time in fifteen years at her funeral. Alice and father move from Cambridge to Boston. Prepares a stage version of Daisy Miller and returns to England in May. William, now a Harvard professor, comes to Europe in September. Proposed by Leslie Stephen, James becomes member, without the usual red tape, of the Atheneum Club. Travels in France in October to write
A Little Tour in France
(published 1884) and has last visit with Turgenev, who is dying. Returns to England in December and learns of father's illness. Sails for America but Henry James Sr. dies December 18, 1882, before his arrival. Made executor of father's will. Visits brothers Wilky and Bob in Milwaukee in January. Quarrels with William over division of propertyJames wants to restore Wilky's share. Macmillan publishes a collected pocket edition of James's novels and tales in fourteen volumes.
Siege of London
and
Portraits of Places
published. Returns to Bolton Street in September. Wilky dies in November. Constance Fenimore Woolson comes to London for the winter.
188486
Goes to Paris in February and visits Daudet, Zola, and Goncourt. Again impressed with their intense concern with art, form, manner but calls them mandarins. Misses Turgenev, who had died a few months before. Meets John Singer Sargent and persuades him to settle in London. Returns to Bolton Street. Sargent introduces him to young Paul Bourget. During country visits encounters many British political and social figures, including W. E. Gladstone, John Bright, and Charles Dilke. Alice, suffering from nervous ailment, arrives in England for visit in November but is too ill to travel and settles near her brother.
Tales of Three Cities
(The Impressions of a Cousin, Lady Barberina, A New England Winter) and The Art of Fiction published 1884. Alice goes to Bournemouth in late January. James joins her in May and becomes an intimate of Robert Louis Stevenson, who resides nearby. Spends August at Dover and is visited by Paul Bourget. Stays in Paris for the next two months. Moves into a flat at 34 De Vere Gardens in Kensington
 
Page 888
early in March 1886. Alice takes rooms in London.
The Bostonians
serialized in
Century
(Feb. 1885Feb. 1886; published 1886),
The Princess Casamassima
serialized in
Atlantic Monthly
(Sept. 1885Oct. 1886; published 1886).
188687
Leaves for Italy in December for extended stay, mainly in Florence and Venice. Sees much of Constance Fenimore Woolson and stays in her villa. Writes The Aspern Papers and other tales. Returns to De Vere Gardens in July and begins work on
The Tragic Muse.
Pays several country visits. Dines out less often (I know it allall that one sees by going outtoday, as if I had made it. But if I had, I would have made it better!).
1888
The Reverberator, The Aspern Papers, Louisa Pallant, The Modern Warning, and Partial Portraits
published. Elizabeth Boott Duveneck dies. Robert Louis Stevenson leaves for the South Seas. Engages fencing teacher to combat symptoms of a portentous corpulence. Goes abroad in October to Geneva (where he visits Woolson), Genoa, Monte Carlo, and Paris.
188990
Catharine Walsh (Aunt Kate) dies March 1889. William comes to England to visit Alice in August. James goes to Dover in September and then to Paris for five weeks. Writes account of Robert Browning's funeral in Westminster Abbey. Dramatizes
The American
for the Compton Comedy Company. Meets and becomes close friends with American journalist William Morton Fullerton and young American publisher Wolcott Balestier. Goes to Italy for the summer, staying in Venice and Florence, and takes a brief walking tour in Tuscany with W. W. Baldwin, an American physician practicing in Florence. Miss Woolson moves to Cheltenham, England, to be near James.
Atlantic Monthly
rejects his story The Pupil, but it appears in England. Writes series of drawing-room comedies for theater. Meets Rudyard Kipling.
The Tragic Muse
serialized in
Atlantic Monthly
(Jan. 1889May 1890; published 1890).
A London Life
(including The Patagonia, The Liar, Mrs. Temperly) published 1889.
1891
The American
produced at Southport is a success during road tour. After residence in Leamington, Alice returns to London, cared for by Katharine Loring. Doctors discover
 
Page 889
she has breast cancer. James circulates comedies (
Mrs. Vibert,
later called
Tenants,
and
Mrs. Jasper,
later named
Disengaged
) among theater managers who are cool to his work. Unimpressed at first by Ibsen, writes an appreciative review after seeing a performance of
Hedda Gabler
with Elizabeth Robins, a young Kentucky actress; persuades her to take the part of Mme. de Cintré in the London production of
The American.
Recuperates from flu in Ireland. James Russell Lowell dies.
The American
opens in London, September 26, and runs for seventy nights. Wolcott Balestier dies, and James attends his funeral in Dresden in December.
1892
Alice James dies March 6. James travels to Siena to be near the Paul Bourgets, and Venice, JuneJuly, to visit the Daniel Curtises, then to Lausanne to meet William and his family, who have come abroad for sabbatical. Attends funeral of Tennyson at Westminster Abbey. Augustin Daly agrees to produce
Mrs. Jasper. The American
continues to be performed on the road by the Compton Company.
The Lesson of the Master
(with a collection of stories including The Marriages, The Pupil, Brooksmith, The Solution, and Sir Edmund Orme) published.
1893
Fanny Kemble dies in January. Continues to write unproduced plays. In March goes to Paris for two months. Sends Edward Compton first act and scenario for
Guy Domville.
Meets William and family in Lucerne and stays a month, returning to London in June. Spends July completing
Guy Domville
in Ramsgate. George Alexander, actor-manager, agrees to produce the play. Daly stages first reading of
Mrs. Jasper,
and James withdraws it, calling the rehearsal a mockery.
The Real Thing and Other Tales
(including The Wheel of Time, Lord Beaupré, The Visit) published.
1894
Constance Fenimore Woolson dies in Venice, January. Shocked and upset, James prepares to attend funeral in Rome but changes his mind on learning she is a suicide. Goes to Venice in April to help her family settle her affairs. Receives one of four copies, privately printed by Miss Loring, of Alice's diary. Finds it impressive but is concerned that so much gossip he told Alice in private has been included (later burns his copy). Robert Louis Ste-
 
Page 890
venson dies in the South Pacific.
Guy Domville
goes into rehearsal.
Theatricals: Two Comedies
and
Theatricals: Second Series
published.
1895
Guy Domville
opens January 5 at St. James's Theatre. At play's end James is greeted by a fifteen-minute roar of boos, catcalls, and applause. Horrified and depressed, abandons the theater. Play earns him $1,300 after five-week run. Feels he can salvage something useful from playwriting for his fiction (a key that, working in the same
general
way fits the complicated chambers of
both
the dramatic and the narrative lock). Writes scenario for
The Spoils of Poynton.
Visits Lord Wolseley and Lord Houghton in Ireland. In the summer goes to Torquay in Devonshire and stays until November while electricity is being installed in De Vere Gardens flat. Friendship with W. E. Norris, who resides at Torquay. Writes a one-act play (Mrs. Gracedew) at request of Ellen Terry.
Terminations
(containing The Death of the Lion, The Coxon Fund, The Middle Years, The Altar of the Dead) published.
189697
Finishes
The Spoils of Poynton
(serialized in
Atlantic Monthly
AprilOct. 1896 as
The Old Things;
published 1897).
Embarrassments
(The Figure in the Carpet, Glasses, The Next Time, The Way It Came) published. Takes a house on Point Hill, Playden, opposite the old town of Rye, Sussex, AugustSeptember. Ford Madox Hueffer (later Ford Madox Ford) visits him. Converts play
The Other House
into novel and works on
What Maisie Knew
(published Sept. 1897). George du Maurier dies early in October. Because of increasing pain in wrist, hires stenographer William MacAlpine in February and then purchases a typewriter; soon begins direct dictation to MacAlpine at the machine. Invites Joseph Conrad to lunch at De Vere Gardens and begins their friendship. Goes to Bournemouth in July. Serves on jury in London before going to Dunwich, Suffolk, to spend time with Temple-Emmet cousins. In late September 1897 signs a twenty-one-year lease for Lamb House in Rye for £70 a year ($350). Takes on extra work to pay for setting up his housethe life of William Wetmore Story ($1,250 advance) and will furnish an American Letter for new magazine
Literature
(precursor of
Times Literary Supplement
) for $200 a month. Howells visits.

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