Letters, Fictions, Lives Henry James and William Dean Hoells [Hardcover]

In this unique and long-awaited volume, Michael Anesko documents the literary cross-fertilization between Henry James and William Dean Howells, collecting 151 letters, nearly all the extant correspondence between the two men, as well as the most significant critical commentary James wrote on Howells and Howells wrote on James.

Scholars have long recognized the peculiar importance of the relationship between these two exponents of realistic fiction--their mutual respect and occasional animosity. But the record of their affinities and substantial differences has never before been so amply and compellingly established. Containing dozens of previously unpublished letters by James, and featuring a detailed biographical chronology as well as extensive interpretive commentaries that meticulously chart the development of this remarkable literary friendship,Letters, Fictions, Lives, edited to the highest standards of scholarly excellence, will prove an invaluable resource for scholars and students of James and Howells, and will hold great interest for dedicated readers of their fiction and for those studying epistolary issues and literary influence between contemporaries.

Since the volume includes 75 previously unpublished letters, it is one of the most substantial and important collections of correspondence in American literary history....[Anesko's] essays--sophisticated in their insights, clear and direct in style, supplemented by detailed notes--provide the most penetrating analysis to date of James and Howells's relationship....Exemplifying the highest standards of scholarship, Anesko's work will be invaluable to scholars and students of American literature and cultural history at all levels. --Choice

We have long needed proper access to the documents of the crucially formative relationship between two of nineteenth-century America's most important literary figures. Michael Anesko's magnificently scholarly volume of the James-HlS‰