Did You Know: Henry James

Henry James was born in New York City on April 15th, 1843. Henry was the second of five children in his family. His father, Henry James Sr., was an extremely wealthy and influential man during this time. Henry James Sr. was well known in the literaryworld and frequently associated with writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and Longfellow. Henry James Sr. thought that formal education was extraordinary important and he sent his children to various tutors throughout Europe to study literature, language, science and mathematics. Henry James Jr. was not fond of taking mathematics but attempted to study law and science. 

Henry James Jr. attended Harvard Law School for one semester before leaving in 1862. Just two years later, James decided his new career would be as a writer. After this decision James spent much of his time traveling back and forth between America and various European cities working on his writing. In 1874 James lived in Italy for a period of time to compose his second novel Roderick Hudson. After completion of this novel he traveled back to New York for a period of time before returned to Europe to live in Paris. In Paris James worked for various newspapers and literary magazines as a way to make a living. Both Henry James Jr. and Sr. believed that journalism was not a sufficient type of writing but James used it as a way to make money so that he could spend more time focusing on his fiction work. James had a growing fan base but he did not capture the attention of Paris with his stories the way he had hoped, so he picked up and moved to London, England in 1876. While living in London, James worked on his story “Daisy Miller” that became one of his best known stories dealing with international issues.

Henry James was considered to be a highly social person because he often partook in social events but not much is known about his private life. James was known to be reserved in terms of his own life and did not often talk about relationships or other personal information. James’ family urged him throughout his life to get married but he refused and never formally married a spouse. It is not clear who James’ had relationships with though he had several female friends in his lifetime. James were also known for hanging out with younger, handsome men but it is unclear if he ever had any type of intimate relation with either men or women.

In 1904 James returned to the United States for the first time in 20 years to begin a cross country lecture tour, which later inspired him to write a series of essays. After this time James became increasingly depressed because he did not become as successful as he had hoped and was losing his audience. He spent four years revising various works of his to be published in a 24 volume “New York Edition” but received little monetary  gain or public attention from this venture. In 1911 and 1912 he received honorary degrees from both Harvard and Oxford. In 1915 James denounced his American citizenship because he was outraged at the United States’ unwillingness to join World War I and became an official British citizen. The following year Henry James received an Order of Merit from King George V. Sadly that same year on February 28th James died of pneumonia after experiencing several strokes and declining health.

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/american/genius/henry_bio.html

http://www.online-literature.com/henry_james/

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