Henry James (1843 1916) is among the most widely read and beloved American writers. Among his best-known works are the novelsThe Portrait of a Lady, Washington Square, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The Aspern Papers, and The Turn of the Screw. Among his many nonfiction works are The Art of Criticism and The Art of the Novel, both available from the University of Chicago Press.
"At first glance, Henry James seems the least likely author of a
book of aphorisms and calendrical quotations. One was, however,
published in his lifetime: The Henry James Yearbook, with a pithy
entry for each day. . . . Originally bound in deep burgundy cloth,
it has been reissued as The Daily Henry James. . . . A modern
editor would not have chosen 'Women have no faculty of imagination
with regard to a man's work beyond a vague idea that it doesn't
matter, ' though its effect is mitigated by being taken from a
story called The Liar. It is nice to be reminded that 'having a
charming surface doesn't necessarily prove that one is superficial'
(The Portrait of a Lady). If James is an unlikely source of
epigrammatic wit, the book has nevertheless a touching origin."--J.
C. "Times Literary Supplement, "NB""
"Who is your favorite novelist of all time? Henry James, for the
range of his sympathy and the quality of his prose. For the way in
which he dramatizes moral issues while all the time attending to
sensuous and stylish questions. For his seriousness about form in
his fiction and the way in which he refuses to allow the reader to
make easy judgments, for his insisting on nuance, half-light and
suggestion, and for his deep understanding of the strangeness and
the wavering nature of motive and feeling in human
relationships."--Colm T�ib�n "New York Times Book Review"
"James can seem cold and unapproachable, but that's far from the
whole story. He was also a raconteur and pleasure-seeker. He
believed in laughter, friendship, and kindness. And even as he
rounded into plump old age, he embodied the young man's eagerness
for learning and improvement. . . . The virtue of The Daily Henry
James is how rousingly it distills the exhortation that echoes
across James's work: Seize the day! Do your work with distinction
and conduct your affairs with all the increasing care and decency
that you can muster. . . . Buying a daybook is an inherently
hopeful act, a small pledge to cultivate a better version of
oneself. James's writing gives nourishment to anyone committed to
that most honorable struggle."--Sam Sacks "Wall Street Journal"
"Mysterious coincidence/concurrence often happens in publishing (as
in life). An example is the publication of two Henry James books:
Travels with Henry James and The Daily Henry James. . . .Daily was
originally printed in 1911, as the 'ultimate token of fandom.' It
was edited by Evelyn Smalley, compiled as a commonplace book--a
personal collection of quotes. From The Portrait of a Lady: 'I
judge more than I used to--but it seems to me that I have earned
the right. One can't judge till one is forty; before that we are
too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition too
ignorant.'"--Marilyn Dahl "Shelf Awareness"
"Part of the purpose of this book, one begins to think, is to
emphasize bookishness itself. In the face of digitization, print
features that gesture toward former ways of reading become more
popular: deckle edges on hardbacks (as if the pages really were cut
with a paper knife), French flaps on paperbacks (a relatively
recent phenomenon in America, but one that carries an old-fashioned
air). The Daily Henry James is small, but its cyclical
quality--reach the end, turn back to the beginning the very next
day--lends it a sense of permanence. It will belong on shelves a
decade from now, it seems to say, as much as it does today, or did
a century ago."--Hannah Rosefield "New Yorker"
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