This rung of the Ladder will enable you to find out which textual versions of which Henry James tales (short-stories) have appeared in which collections published over the years, including ones in James’s own lifetime (as sources). For completeness, details are also given of original magazine sources, where appropriate.

Collections which are thought to be in print are noted, with the latest known prices in UK and USA. Additions and corrections are made from time to time, as information becomes available, so the foot of each page shows the date of the latest update. I’ve also put together two supplementary pages: a general one about identifying which version of a tale you’ve got in your hand if the collection it’s in isn’t listed here or if I don’t know the details; and (new in 2008) a page containing example differences, mainly between first book texts and those of the New York edition, of about 60 of the tales. (Tales included in the ‘samples’ page have links on their index pages.)

a note on coverage

At the end of 2003, Floyd R. Horowitz edited The uncollected stories of Henry James (Carroll & Graf) containing 24 anonymous or pseudonymous stories published in the 1850s and 1860s which he claims to have identified, on the basis of statistical and stylistic analyses, as being by Henry James. These titles are not currently indexed here as critical discussion is still open on the validity of these claims. Also, of course, they are not, as yet, available in any other collection!

The recent rise of internet-based, print-on-demand publishers of unedited texts has complicated the bibliographer’s task. My current approach is to ignore them completely in this index, largely because their offerings are usually quite expensive and are not often available in libraries, so access is difficult for this unsubsidized work. A survey of volume titles available (mostly novels, plays and letters) suggests that such publishers are usually digitizing old, out-of-copyright editions, but, if they want sales, they will have to be much more explicit about the contents of their titles! I’m not going to spend a fortune to do their advertising for them and my advice, if you want to buy Henry James’s tales, is to go for more traditional editions, including the tens of thousands of secondhand copies of volumes you can identify through this index.

acknowledgments

Many thanks to Gert Buelens at the University of Ghent for the original details of the Library of America volumes 82 and 83. Also to Richard Hathaway, compiler of the Henry James scholar’s Guide to Web Sites, for the initial details of the available editions.

technical notes

The pages here are generated by a Perl program which I have developed, using a database which I maintain when I have time to spare. At present, printed collections are indexed only if they comprise solely or mainly of Henry James’s work; appearances of individual tales in multi-author anthologies await further work, but, if you are after such details now, I can refer you to the annual listings printed in the journal Studies in short fiction from about 1970 onwards (vol. 7 seems to contain the first). If you have further information about solely James collections, for example details of those not yet indexed here (you can check this in the list of all collections), please contact me with the fullest details you can and I will endeavour to add them into the database in the future.

important :

most of the information is here is believed to be correct but it really needs more proof-reading to be sure. For the time being you are advised to check any details of which you wish to be certain (for example, for use in your PhD bibliography!)

Adrian Dover – June 2009