William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was perhaps more famous than Henry James (April 15, 1843 to February 28, 1916) during their lifetimes, though they were fellow titans. James of course was the Anglophile, from an old family. Howells, of humble origins, would become president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The old world and the new.
We can visit, via the National Trust, a major space constitutive of James's Anglophilia:
'In 1895 the author Henry James spotted, by accident, a watercolour painting by his friend Edward Warren...
'Henry James was on a quest for what he called a ‘lowly refuge,’ and Lamb House suited his desire for a permanent home away from the bustle of London life. He was 55 when he took out a 21 year lease in 1897 and settled down in the historic house, built by James Lamb in 1722.
....
'Henry James grew more and more attached to Lamb House, filling it with books and paintings by artists that he admired like Flaubert, Whistler and Burne-Jones. He was also fond of the garden; as Arthur Benson wrote in 1900:
'" To see him, when I came down to breakfast this morning, in a kind of Holbein square cap of velvet and black velvet coat, scattering bread on the frozen lawn to the birds, was delightful…"
....
'It was the Garden Room which had first attracted James to Lamb House and captured his imagination and it was in the Garden Room that Henry James worked on his last three major novels, 'The Wings of the Dove' (1902), 'The Ambassadors' (1903) and 'The Golden Bowl' (1904).
...
[Describing his routine the article states: ]
'James started work at 10 am, writing in the Garden Room in the Summer and the Green Room in the Winter. After lunch he selected a hat - of which he had many - and went for a walk with his dachshund Maximilian.
'In the evenings James would revise his work, often whilst drinking tea and eating chocolate with his trusted secretary, Theodora Bosanquet....
'After the death of Henry James the house was taken by another writer, E.F. Benson. While he kept the house as James left it, the Garden Room was destroyed by a bomb in 1940.
....
'The BBC adaptation of the EF Benson novels ‘Mapp and Lucia’ was filmed at Lamb House. Benson lived in the red brick Georgian house and based the fictional home of the books’ title characters on it.'
'" To see him, when I came down to breakfast this morning, in a kind of Holbein square cap of velvet and black velvet coat, scattering bread on the frozen lawn to the birds, was delightful…"
....
'It was the Garden Room which had first attracted James to Lamb House and captured his imagination and it was in the Garden Room that Henry James worked on his last three major novels, 'The Wings of the Dove' (1902), 'The Ambassadors' (1903) and 'The Golden Bowl' (1904).
...
[Describing his routine the article states: ]
'James started work at 10 am, writing in the Garden Room in the Summer and the Green Room in the Winter. After lunch he selected a hat - of which he had many - and went for a walk with his dachshund Maximilian.
'In the evenings James would revise his work, often whilst drinking tea and eating chocolate with his trusted secretary, Theodora Bosanquet....
'After the death of Henry James the house was taken by another writer, E.F. Benson. While he kept the house as James left it, the Garden Room was destroyed by a bomb in 1940.
....
'The BBC adaptation of the EF Benson novels ‘Mapp and Lucia’ was filmed at Lamb House. Benson lived in the red brick Georgian house and based the fictional home of the books’ title characters on it.'
Above we caught glimpses of Henry James with birds, and dogs. The book William Dean Howells and the Ends of Realism (2005) widens our view. There we read:
'Henry James, ever supportive and competitive wrote to Howells in 1891: "Your nomadic ways give me an impression of a large free power -- and make me feel like a corpulent fireside cat, tied by a pink ribbon to a everlastingly same fender."'
That fender would have predated Lamb House, but we are confident, the same fender was there at the English home Henry James so loved.
'Henry James, ever supportive and competitive wrote to Howells in 1891: "Your nomadic ways give me an impression of a large free power -- and make me feel like a corpulent fireside cat, tied by a pink ribbon to a everlastingly same fender."'
That fender would have predated Lamb House, but we are confident, the same fender was there at the English home Henry James so loved.
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