Henry Jamess New York Edition The Construction of Authorship [Hardcover]

Toward the end of Henry James's career, Charles Scribner's Sons offered him the opportunity to publish his collected works in a single edition under the overall titleThe New York Edition of the Novels and Tales of Henry James(1907-1909). Rather than simply reprint his fictional oeuvre, James entered into a massive work of self-monumentalization: revising the texts extensively; writing prefaces that have become classic texts on prose aesthetics and the novelist's art; and omitting many works, among them some major novels. The thirty illustrations include all twenty-four frontispiece photographs made, under James's supervision, for the edition.

David McWhirter is Associate Professor of English at Texas A & M University.Toward the end of James's career, Charles Scribner's Sons offered to publish his collected work under the overall titleThe New York Edition of the Novels and Tales of Henry James. This book is the first comprehensive effort to apprehend the full complexity of James's self-performance there. McWhirter's collection of essays takes on the long-awaited task of situating the 24-volume New York edition and its author within a cultural/historical framework. . . . Easily establishes itself as a must for Jamesians and a valuable read for anyone concerned with narrative theory and/or the history of the novel.