Henry James: Autobiographies: A Small Boy and Others / Notes of a Son and Brother / The Middle Years / Other Writings: Library of America #274

Overview

The most extensive collection of Henry James's autobiographical writings ever published offers a revelatory self-portrait from one of America's supreme novelists and his famous family. In 1911, deeply affected by the death of his brother William the year before, Henry James began working on a book about his early life. As was customary for James in his later years, he dictated his recollections to his secretary Theodora Bosanquet, who recalled how “a straight dive into the past brought to the surface treasure after treasure.” A Small Boy and Others (1913) and the two autobiographical books that followed—Notes of a Son and Brother (1914) and the incomplete, posthumously published The Middle Years—stand with his later novels as one of the enduring triumphs of his final years. Not only did James create one of the singular self-portraits in American literature, he also fashioned a richly detailed account of his renowned family, especially his father, the social philosopher Henry James Sr., his brother William, and his dear cousin Minny Temple, inspiration for the heroines of two of his greatest novels, The Portrait of a Lady and The Wings of the Dove.
Rounding out the volume is a selection of eight other personal reminiscences and, as an appendix, his secretary’s insightful and affectionate memoir, “Henry James at Work.”

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