JAMES, Henry, American novelist and es sayist: b. New York, 15 April 1843; d. London, 28 Feb. 1916. He was the son of a clergyman, Henry James (q.v.), who gained fame as a writer on philosophico-theological subjects, first from the Sandemanian and afterward from the Swedenborgian standpoint. The novelist, known until his father's death as Henry James, Junior, was educated under his father's guid ance in New York, Geneva, Paris and Boulogne. He lived in Europe with his parents during the years 1855-59, and after his return to the United States studied in the Harvard Law School in 1862. He began his literary career about 1865 as a contributor to American maga zines, and soon afterward published
stories he describes the life of Americans in Europe, and they depend for much of their interest upon the contrasts between American and European character and institutions. Though a very prolific writer, he was never careless, his style being always felicitous, while in respect to the substance of his work he ranked as the subtlest of American novelists. A dramatic version of (The American) was produced in London in 1891, but neither it nor his subsequent play (Guy Domville> (1895) was successful. He turned his intimate knowledge of modern French literature to good account in his volume of essays entitled
Poets and Novelists) (1878). Other works of a similar kind are 'Transatlantic
(1875) ; (Portraits of Places) (1884) •
Little Tour in France) (1884; new ed., 1900) •
tial Portraits' (1888);
in London and Elsewhere) (1893). He also contributed the volume on (Hawthorne) (1879) in the
lish Men of Letters) series, and in 1903 pub lished
Wetmore Story and his Friends,' a notable biography. A revised definitive edition was issued of his
and Tales) (24 vols., 1909). See AMBASSADORS, THE; DAISY MELLER.