JAMES, HENRY. Notes of a Son & Brother. London: Macmillan 1914. 8vo, original blue cloth, uncut, light rubbing to extremities, offset on free endpapers; half morocco slipcase. First English Edition, PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND HOWARD STURGIS, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Howard Sturgis all affectionately Henry James. March 1914" (publication date was March 13); with marginal notes by Sturgis on eight pages, frontispiece portrait of William James. Edel & Laurence A72b. Howard Sturgis (nicknamed "Howdie") was the youngest son of Russell Sturgis, an American banker living in London whom James had known since the 1870s. After completing his education at Eton and Cambridge, Howard Sturgis inherited considerable wealth and settled into Victorian domesticity at a large villa near Windsor Great Park. He was addicted to embroidery and knitting and as George Santayana put it, he became "'a perfect young lady of the Victorian type'" (Edel, Life. V. p. 194). James was a regular visitor to his home where, as Edel notes (p. 195), "its frequenters were all amusing and brilliant and all of 'the better sort.'" James encouraged and aided Sturgis with his writing, particularly the novel Belchamber (1904), though Sturgis felt the Master's displeasure with the quality of the book as published. The second volume of James's "memoirs."Provenance: James Gilvarry (sale, Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 112).

JAMES, HENRY. Notes of a Son & Brother. London: Macmillan 1914. 8vo, original blue cloth, uncut, light rubbing to extremities, offset on free endpapers; half morocco slipcase. First English Edition, PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND HOWARD STURGIS, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Howard Sturgis all affectionately Henry James. March 1914" (publication date was March 13); with marginal notes by Sturgis on eight pages, frontispiece portrait of William James. Edel & Laurence A72b. Howard Sturgis (nicknamed "Howdie") was the youngest son of Russell Sturgis, an American banker living in London whom James had known since the 1870s. After completing his education at Eton and Cambridge, Howard Sturgis inherited considerable wealth and settled into Victorian domesticity at a large villa near Windsor Great Park. He was addicted to embroidery and knitting and as George Santayana put it, he became "'a perfect young lady of the Victorian type'" (Edel, Life. V. p. 194). James was a regular visitor to his home where, as Edel notes (p. 195), "its frequenters were all amusing and brilliant and all of 'the better sort.'" James encouraged and aided Sturgis with his writing, particularly the novel Belchamber (1904), though Sturgis felt the Master's displeasure with the quality of the book as published. The second volume of James's "memoirs." Provenance: James Gilvarry (sale, Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 112).

Details

JAMES, HENRY. Notes of a Son & Brother. London: Macmillan 1914. 8vo, original blue cloth, uncut, light rubbing to extremities, offset on free endpapers; half morocco slipcase. First English Edition, PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND HOWARD STURGIS, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Howard Sturgis all affectionately Henry James. March 1914" (publication date was March 13); with marginal notes by Sturgis on eight pages, frontispiece portrait of William James. Edel & Laurence A72b. Howard Sturgis (nicknamed "Howdie") was the youngest son of Russell Sturgis, an American banker living in London whom James had known since the 1870s. After completing his education at Eton and Cambridge, Howard Sturgis inherited considerable wealth and settled into Victorian domesticity at a large villa near Windsor Great Park. He was addicted to embroidery and knitting and as George Santayana put it, he became "'a perfect young lady of the Victorian type'" (Edel, Life. V. p. 194). James was a regular visitor to his home where, as Edel notes (p. 195), "its frequenters were all amusing and brilliant and all of 'the better sort.'" James encouraged and aided Sturgis with his writing, particularly the novel Belchamber (1904), though Sturgis felt the Master's displeasure with the quality of the book as published. The second volume of James's "memoirs."

Provenance: James Gilvarry (sale, Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 112).