Details
JAMES, Henry. Autograph letter signed to William Heinemann, 34 De Vere Gardens [London], 27 March 1898. 4 pages, 8vo, on printed grey stationary. Provenance: James Gilvarry (his sale Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 155).
JAMES CRITIQUES A PLAY BY HIS ENGLISH PUBLISHER
"I have found this grey, still Sunday morning the quiet hour I had been saving up 'Summer Moths' for -- I had been so pressed with occupations & pre-occupations... It is bitter enough -- a grim & concentrated little drame, minding its own business very firmly & finding its evolution, its station (a great -- the greatest merit,) really in its subject & not merely in the inkstand... The subject I think strong, the compression of the thing artful and the female Britons, especially principal one, touching, but I am tempted to pronounce the young man a sinner not quite sufficiently interesting -- too immediate, that is, & too simple. But oh 'simplicity,' I hear you say -- what else do 3 or 4 little acts permit? They are indeed a viley ungrateful form. But I think you do show the sense of what can be got out of it, & I find all sorts of intentions & Ibsenish mysteries in the American element, which is expertly handled..." Heinemann's play, Summer Moths, was published by John Lane in 1898. Apparently unpublished, not in Letters, ed. Edel.
JAMES CRITIQUES A PLAY BY HIS ENGLISH PUBLISHER
"I have found this grey, still Sunday morning the quiet hour I had been saving up 'Summer Moths' for -- I had been so pressed with occupations & pre-occupations... It is bitter enough -- a grim & concentrated little drame, minding its own business very firmly & finding its evolution, its station (a great -- the greatest merit,) really in its subject & not merely in the inkstand... The subject I think strong, the compression of the thing artful and the female Britons, especially principal one, touching, but I am tempted to pronounce the young man a sinner not quite sufficiently interesting -- too immediate, that is, & too simple. But oh 'simplicity,' I hear you say -- what else do 3 or 4 little acts permit? They are indeed a viley ungrateful form. But I think you do show the sense of what can be got out of it, & I find all sorts of intentions & Ibsenish mysteries in the American element, which is expertly handled..." Heinemann's play, Summer Moths, was published by John Lane in 1898. Apparently unpublished, not in Letters, ed. Edel.