The Center for Henry James Studies

Creighton University

Greg W. Zacharias, Director
Katie Sommer, Associate Editor, The Complete Letters of Henry James

Natalie Gorup, undergraduate assistant

Kylie Regan, undergraduate assistant

The Complete Letters of Henry James

Archive of Letter Copies

Library of Henry James Scholarship

James Family Papers

Henry James Society, Inc., and the Henry James Review

Center for Henry James Studies letter files

Leon Edel Transcriptions of Henry James Letters

The Complete Letters of Henry James

2007 Outstanding Academic Book selections (Choice)

Other Publications:

Purpose of theProject
Henry James (1843-1916) is widely regarded as one of the most important literary figures in the history of U.S. culture. James wrote more than twenty novels, some one hundred short stories, thousands of pages of art and literary criticism, several volumes of travel essays, and several autobiographical volumes. He played a central role in achieving the acceptance in the English-speaking world of fiction as art and an expression of a nation’s artistic production. James’s role in determining the direction of American literature and thus culture is represented in his letters to an extraordinary range of over 1,000 individuals. A complete collection of the letters will enrich by its range and detail our understanding of Henry James’s importance to our cultural legacy, to the way we understand ourselves today asa people, and thus to the way we will conduct ourselves tomorrow.  Henry James’s talents as an observer and reporter of American, British, French, and Italian cultures of the later nineteenth century, in combination with the extraordinary range of individuals with whom he corresponded, make his letters useful for historians, biographers, cultural critics, and literary scholars. Thus, the letters and the Center’s library will constitute a unique and significant resource for students, teachers, scholars of Henry James, and also of American and European history and culture from the later nineteenth century. The University of Nebraska Press is publishing the edition in volumes of approximately 75 letters, with respective textual commentary, informational notes and front matter. To date, five books have been published, 1855-1872, volume 1, 1855-1872, volume 2, 1872-1876, volume 1, 1872-1876, volume 2 and 1872-1876, volume 3.

Creighton University provides office space and an operating budget for the James Center.  The University of Nebraska Press is responsible for the production of the print edition. Public funding and donations and grants from private sources will be necessary for project completion. Naming opportunities are available. All contributions are tax deductible. Letters of inquiry and interest are invited. Third-party contributions may qualify the Center to receive federal matching funds.

General Editors of The Complete Letters of Henry James are Greg W. Zacharias  (Creighton University, project director) and Pierre A. Walker (Salem State College).

Archive of Letter Copies
With a complete archive of letter copies as the basis of The Complete Letters project, the Center will become the only place in the world where scholars, teachers, and students can read all of James’s more than 10,000 letters to more than one thousand correspondents.  Currently James’s letters are held in some 130 known archives and private collections in the United States, England, and elsewhere, making it difficult and expensive (if not impossible in the case of private collections) to gain access to the letters.  The Center welcomes requests for letter copies and/or transcriptions of these manuscripts.  Requests can be emailed to Greg Zacharias, gwzach@creighton.edu, or faxed to (402) 280-5717.

Leon Edel Transcriptions of Henry James Letters

The James Center owns transcriptions of more than 6,100 Henry James letters made by Leon Edel while he worked on his biography of Henry James and his edition of Henry James Letters. Containing corrections and comments in Edel’s hand, there are both original typescripts and carbon copies as well as photocopies of published letters Edel used. This collection overlaps a similar one at McGill University, but does not duplicate it. The Edel transcriptions were organized by correspondent in 43 three-ring binders, which Edel gave to his long-time friend, Adeline Tintner. You may download the Excel inventory of these transcriptions at Leon Edel Transcriptions of Henry James Letters or in the link above.

Library of Henry James Scholarship
A library of James scholarship complements the letter archive and is invaluable to the Center’s editors. The Center welcomes contributions to its library (which are tax-deductible) in the form of books, collections, and offprints.  Also helpful to all users is a complete Online Calendar of Henry James's Letters and A Biographical Register of Henry James's Correspondents, by Steven H. Jobe and Susan E. Gunter.

James Family Papers
The James Family Papers archive is comprised of documents belonging to Ms. Bay James and on loan to the Center for Henry James Studies at Creighton University.  Ms. James loaned the documents to the James Center in order to preserve and protect them, to make them centrally available for family members, and also, at the same time, to make them available to scholars.

Center for Henry James Studies

Creighton University

Omaha, NE 68178

(402) 280-5714

(402) 280-5717 fax

gwzach@creighton.edu

Advisory Board for The Complete Letters of Henry James

Michael Anesko The Pennsylvania State University	Millicent Bell Boston University
Daniel Mark Fogel University of Vermont	Robert Gale University of Pittsburgh
Susan Gunter Westminster College	Richard Hocks University of Missouri-Columbia
Philip Horne University College London	Bay James Newbury, MA
Henry James Dublin, NH	Steven Jobe Hanover College (Indiana)
Fred Kaplan CUNY	David McWhirter Texas A & M University
George Monteiro Brown University	Lyall H. Powers The University of Michigan
Roberta A. Sheehan Quincy, MA	Cheryl Torsney West Virginia University
Pierre Walker Salem State College	Ruth Bernard Yeazell Yale University
Rosella Mamoli Zorzi Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia

Editorial Advisory Board for The Complete Letters of Henry James

Michael Anesko The Pennsylvania State University	Millicent Bell Boston University
Susan Gunter Westminster College	Steven Jobe Hanover College (Indiana)
George Monteiro Brown University	Rosella Mamoli Zorzi Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia