Henry James, OM (April 15 1843 – February 28 1916), son of Henry James Sr. and brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, was an American-born author and literary critic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He spent much of his life in Europe and became a British subject shortly before his death. He is primarily known for novels, novellas and short stories based on themes of consciousness and morality.

James significantly contributed to the criticism of fiction, particularly in his insistence that writers be allowed the greatest freedom possible in presenting their view of the world. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and possibly unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to narrative fiction. An extraordinarily productive writer, he published substantive books of travel writing, biography, autobiography and visual arts criticism.See the referenced bibliography by Edel, Laurence and Rambeau for a complete account of James's large volume of writings.

Life

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Henry James was born in New York City into a wealthy, intellectually inclined family. His father, Henry James Sr., was interested in various religious and literary pursuits. In his youth, James travelled with his family back and forth between Europe and America. He studied with tutors in Geneva, London, Paris, and Bonn. At the age of 19, he briefly and unsuccessfully attended Harvard Law School, but he much preferred reading and writing fiction to studying law.In an unpublished note, "The Turning Point of My Life," James ruefully notes how he wrote fiction instead of law at Harvard: "It so happened that I had in the deepest depths of the past spent a year at that admirable institution the Harvard Law School, and that, withdrawing from it prematurely—though under no precipitation that I may not now comfortably refer to—I brought away with me certain rolls of manuscript that were quite shamelessly not so many bundles of notes on the perusal of so many calfskin volumes. These were notes of quite another sort, small sickly seed enough, no doubt, but to be sown and to sprout up into such flowers as they might, in a much less trimmed and ordered garden than that of the law." The Complete Notebooks of Henry James edited by Leon Edel and Lyall Powers (2005) p.437–438. James also discusses his very unsuccessful time at Harvard Law School in Notes of a Son and Brother, especially chapters nine and ten.

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