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H'ry to Wm, Nov. 2, 1908. Age: 65
H'ry offers an eloquent lament for the hurried public age:"But of the challenges from London the end seems never. Mrs [Edith] Wharton arrives on the 5th returning -- from the antipodes -- at the end...
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Wm to H'ry, Dec. 19, 1908. Age: 66
Wm rises early to catch an dawn:"I write this at 6:30, in the library which the blessed hard coal fir has kept warm all night long. The night has been still, thermometer 20, and the dawn is breaking...
View ArticleWm to H'ry, Jan. 24, 1909. Age: 67
I'll second this observation, from Wm to H'ry:"I have just written 'contents & 'Index' to my Oxford lectures, (you may thank your stars that the kind of books you write require no indexes)..."
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Wm to H'ry, Jan. 24, 1909. Age: 67
Perhaps an example of why the James family wanted many of the brothers' letters burned:"I also read your article on C[harles]. E[liot]. N[orton]., in the Burlington, with great gusto. He has been so...
View ArticleWm to H'ry. Feb. 3, 1909. Age: 65
Is this the beginning of the end?"My dear William. I am making up my mind to tell you, with every precaution, that my 'pectoral' trouble has of late been giving ou ome rather worrying...
View ArticleH'ry to Wm, Feb. 5, 1909. Age 65
False alarm -- the cure was worse than the disease:"I am feeling so infinitely & promptly better that I blush for the depressed letter that I wrote to you Tuesday last....I was simply sickined for...
View ArticleWm to H'ry, Feb. 13, 1909. Age: 67
Wm suspects that letter-writing might be at the heart of H'ry's heart problems:"But moderate your efforts in other ways! Write little eigenhändig, and write shorter letters than you habitually do! No...
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Wm to H'ry, June 23, 1909. Age: 67
A little more than a year before his death, Wm is still acquainting himself with the ancient past:"I have just finished 3 vols. of Plutarch's lives -- great stuff to read, more everlasting human...
View ArticleH'ry to Wm, July 18, 1909. Age: 66
And Wm wasn't the only one interested of late in old Lives..."Awfully interesting what you tell me of Plutarch -- whom I reopened -- with extreme interest, to the extent of 3 or 4 Greek Lives -- a year...
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Wm to H'ry, Oct. 9, 1909. Age: 67
Wm writes from Flume House in the White Mountains:"I think it is the finest season for colour that has ever been. A sort of chromatic frenzy, as if fireworks, jewelry, rainbows, glitter, could go no...
View ArticleH'ry to Wm, Oct. 31, 1909. Age: 66
Wm was never able to enjoy H'ry's most ambitious books; not true the reverse, as H'ry gives a surprisingly intimate read to Wm's The Meaning of Truth:"I find it of thrilling interest, triumphant &...
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Wm to H'ry, Jan. 7, 1910. Age: 67
Wm sits for another portrait:"Bay Emmett returns next week to put the finishing touches to my portrait. I hope they will make it 'good' -- for so far I don't like it much."
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Wm to H'ry, Feb. 4, 1910. Age: 68
Wm learns from H'ry's secretary that H'ry is fine:"We are thrilled by a note from Miss Bosanquet, just arriving..., telling us that Dr. Skinner says there is 'no cause for anxiety, & that you are...
View ArticleWm to H'ry, Feb. 4, 1910. Age: 68
"It seems queer that our indications should be so opposed to each other!"Wm refers to the fact that his heart feels at peace while H'ry is suffering -- but he's right, Wm will die within a few months,...
View ArticleH'ry to Wm, Feb. 8, 1910. Age: 66
After a period of renewed faith in "Fletcherism," H'ry prefaces a long description of his latest woes:"It has been, frankly & briefly, the last rude reminder of the heritage of woe of too prolonged...
View ArticleWm to H'ry, Feb. 18, 1910. Age: 68
H'ry's Fletcherism bane -- which amounted to his almost starving himself -- is for Wm a philosophical reminder that subjectivity can't be trusted for everything:"Starvation in you had evidently thrown...
View ArticleH'ry to Wm, March 4, 1910. Age: 66
The last bit in the correspondence containing what might be called H'ry's emetic honesty re: his stomach:"It is still the same simple, vicious abominable thing: the refusal of my stomach to act --...
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H'ry to Wm, April 4, 1910. Age: 66
Wm has booked passage aboard the Megantic, ostensibly to save his brother from his stomach. For his part, H'ry is more pleased that Wm's wife is coming too:"The news of Alice's coming is a boundless...
View ArticleWm to H'ry, May 28, 1910. Age: 68
On arriving in England, Wmmade directly for Nauheim -- the passage had laid him low -- and wife Alice went to tend to H'ry, who was on the mend. Wm now has a diagnosis of the ailment that will kill...
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H'ry to Wm, May 31, 1910. Age: 67
H'ry writes from Hill Hall, which put him on a new regime of food and movement:"I am very definitely better, & 18 days of this place have done it. The great difference is that the change of...
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Wm to H'ry, June 2, 1910. Age: 68
A good number of Wm's final weeks were spent alone in rooms at the Hotel Hohenzollern in Nauheim:"My own change of lodging has been good. I find the table very suited to my case, and tho my life is...
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H'ry to Wm, June 5, 1910. Age: 67
Even before it was apparent that Wm's condition had turned, for the last time, for the worse, H'ry has decided to leave Lamb House and return to America with his brother, so as to pursue "salvation":"I...
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H'ry to Wm, Aug. 7, 1910. Age: 67
H'ry writes the last letter of the correspondence from the Reform Club in London. Even others are aware now that Wm has begun a descent:"I dined last p.m. with 'Minnie' Jones & [Edith Wharton] at...
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H'ry to Wm, Aug. 7, 1910. Age: 67
H'ry's final letter, written from London and delivered to Wm at Lamb House, hopes the garden will offer something of a cure:"Today has all the promise of beauty...& I devoutly hope you wil have...
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The End of the Correspondence
END OF VOLUME THREEH'ry returned to Lamb House, and he and Wm and wife Alice all promptly left for Chocorua. Wm died shortly after they arrived, H'ry lived another five years. No further letters were...
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