Henry James

About

American-born British author who wrote The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, and The American. He is considered a key figure in 19th-century literary realism.

Before Fame

He enrolled in Harvard Law School at age nineteen, but devoted himself to a literary career after publishing his first short story, A Tragedy of Error, at the age of twenty-one.

Trivia

A prolific author, he published over twenty novels and more than a hundred novellas and short stories over the course of his nearly fifty-year career.

Family Life

He was the brother of the renowned philosopher and psychologist, William James. He also had a sister, Alice, who achieved a degree of posthumous fame for her published diary.

Associated With

He influenced the literary development and writing style of author Virginia Woolf.