Greg Zacharias, Director and Co-General Editor
Katie Sommer, Associate Editor, The Complete Letters of Henry James
Quinn Findley, undergraduate assistant
Katie Sommer, Associate Editor, The Complete Letters of Henry James
Quinn Findley, undergraduate assistant
Henry James (1843-1916) is widely regarded as one of the most important literary figures in the history of U.S. culture. James wrote more than twenty novels, some one hundred short stories, thousands of pages of art and literary criticism, several volumes of travel essays, and several autobiographical volumes. He played a central role in achieving the acceptance in the English-speaking world of fiction as art and an expression of a nation’s artistic production. James’s role in determining the direction of American literature and thus culture is represented in his letters to an extraordinary range of over 1,000 individuals. A complete collection of the letters will enrich by its range and detail our understanding of Henry James’s importance to our cultural legacy, to the way we understand ourselves today as a people, and thus to the way we will conduct ourselves tomorrow. Henry James’s talents as an observer and reporter of American, British, French, and Italian cultures of the later nineteenth century, in combination with the extraordinary range of individuals with whom he corresponded, make his letters useful for historians, biographers, cultural critics, and literary scholars. Thus, the letters and the Center’s library will constitute a unique and significant resource for students, teachers, scholars of Henry James, and also of American and European history and culture from the later nineteenth century. The University of Nebraska Press is publishing the edition in volumes of approximately 75 letters, with respective textual commentary, informational notes and front matter. To date, ten books have been published.
Creighton University provides office space and an operating budget for the James Center. The University of Nebraska Press is responsible for the production of the print edition. Public funding and donations and grants from private sources will be necessary for project completion. Naming opportunities are available. All contributions are tax deductible. Letters of inquiry and interest are invited. Third-party contributions may qualify the Center to receive federal matching funds.
The General Editors of The Complete Letters of Henry James are Greg W. Zacharias (Creighton University, project director) and Michael W. Anesko (The Pennsylvania State University).
Archive of Letter Copies
With a complete archive of letter copies as the basis of The Complete Letters project, the Center will become the only place in the world where scholars, teachers, and students can read all of James’s more than 10,000 letters to more than one thousand correspondents. Currently James’s letters are held in some 130 known archives and private collections in the United States, England, and elsewhere, making it difficult and expensive (if not impossible in the case of private collections) to gain access to the letters. The Center welcomes requests for letter copies and/or transcriptions of these manuscripts. Requests can be emailed to Greg Zacharias, [email protected].
Leon Edel Transcriptions of Henry James Letters
The James Center owns transcriptions of more than 6,100 Henry James letters made by Leon Edel while he worked on his biography of Henry James and his edition of Henry James Letters. Containing corrections and comments in Edel’s hand, there are both original typescripts and carbon copies as well as photocopies of published letters Edel used. This collection overlaps a similar one at McGill University, but does not duplicate it. The Edel transcriptions were organized by correspondent in 43 three-ring binders, which Edel gave to his long-time friend, Adeline Tintner. You may download the Excel inventory of these transcriptions here.
Library of Henry James Scholarship
A library of James scholarship complements the letter archive and is invaluable to the Center’s editors. The Center welcomes contributions to its library (which are tax-deductible) in the form of books, collections, and offprints.
Creighton University provides office space and an operating budget for the James Center. The University of Nebraska Press is responsible for the production of the print edition. Public funding and donations and grants from private sources will be necessary for project completion. Naming opportunities are available. All contributions are tax deductible. Letters of inquiry and interest are invited. Third-party contributions may qualify the Center to receive federal matching funds.
The General Editors of The Complete Letters of Henry James are Greg W. Zacharias (Creighton University, project director) and Michael W. Anesko (The Pennsylvania State University).
Archive of Letter Copies
With a complete archive of letter copies as the basis of The Complete Letters project, the Center will become the only place in the world where scholars, teachers, and students can read all of James’s more than 10,000 letters to more than one thousand correspondents. Currently James’s letters are held in some 130 known archives and private collections in the United States, England, and elsewhere, making it difficult and expensive (if not impossible in the case of private collections) to gain access to the letters. The Center welcomes requests for letter copies and/or transcriptions of these manuscripts. Requests can be emailed to Greg Zacharias, [email protected].
Leon Edel Transcriptions of Henry James Letters
The James Center owns transcriptions of more than 6,100 Henry James letters made by Leon Edel while he worked on his biography of Henry James and his edition of Henry James Letters. Containing corrections and comments in Edel’s hand, there are both original typescripts and carbon copies as well as photocopies of published letters Edel used. This collection overlaps a similar one at McGill University, but does not duplicate it. The Edel transcriptions were organized by correspondent in 43 three-ring binders, which Edel gave to his long-time friend, Adeline Tintner. You may download the Excel inventory of these transcriptions here.
Library of Henry James Scholarship
A library of James scholarship complements the letter archive and is invaluable to the Center’s editors. The Center welcomes contributions to its library (which are tax-deductible) in the form of books, collections, and offprints.