each preface appears at the start of a volume of the ‘collective’ New York edition; the volumes have individual title-pages, according to their contents, and a series half-title. For example:
The tragic muse [vol. 1] / by Henry James. – New York : Scribner’s; London : Macmillan, 1908. – xxii, 378p. : frontis.; 22 cm. – (The novels and tales of Henry James, New York edition ; vol. 7)
contents: preface; text
the prefaces were specially written by James for each novel or collection in the edition; also the texts of the novels and tales were revised
The art of the novel : critical prefaces / by Henry James, with an introduction by Richard P. Blackmur. – New York ; London : Scribner’s; 1934. – xli, 348 p.; 21 cm.
contents: introduction; all eighteen prefaces
given the relative rarity of the New York edition volumes, this is the form in which the prefaces are generally known to the professional and amateur student of James
An index to Henry James’s prefaces to the New York
edition / by Rosemary F. Franklin. –
Charlottesville, VA : Bibliographical Society
of the University of Virginia, 1966. –
29 p. ; 18 cm., paper covers
an analytical index to the prefaces, giving page references to the Blackmur collection; Franklin indexes titles, characters, places of composition and key concepts (for example ‘ambiguity’, ‘center of interest’ and so on); she hasn’t however followed up and indexed the names of people or places only designated by descriptions: for example there is no entry under ‘Benson, Edward White’ or ‘Canterbury, Archbishop of’ for the ‘distinguished host’ who gave James the idea for The turn of the screw, as recalled in the preface to volume 12; nevertheless, a useful companion to the Blackmur volume – if you can find a copy!
[I hope to add some of these soon – ed.]
selective bibliography and critical commentaries
© 2003
part of an etext edition of the
prefaces to the
New York edition
of Henry James
on
the Ladder : a Henry James website