by Henry James
401.7 Tartarus] In Greek mythology, place of punishment in the afterlife.
402.14–16 unsuccessful attack on Fort Wagner from which the gallant young leader of the movement was not to return.] On July 10, 1863, Union troops landed on Morris Island at the southern entrance to Charleston Harbor but failed to capture Fort Wagner at the island’s northern end the following day. On July 18, Union forces led by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a black regiment commanded by Robert Gould Shaw (1837–1863), were repulsed with heavy losses in an unsuccessful assault on the fort. Shaw was killed during the fighting and was buried by the Confederates in a mass grave with his men.
402.35 his regiment] The 55th Massachusetts Infantry, like the 54th a black regiment with white commissioned officers.
403.5 Frank Shaw] Francis George Shaw (1809–1882), abolitionist, father of Robert Gould Shaw.
407.32 gaudia certaminis] Latin: joys of battle. (Byron’s “Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte,” line 29, “The rapture of the strife,” has a note referring to “‘Certaminis gaudia’—the expression of Attila in his harangue to his army, previous to the battle of Chalons, given in Cassiodorus.”)
408.14 recueil] French: gathering, anthology, compendium.
410.15 arva beata] Latin: blessed fields (from Horace, Epode 16: “arva beata / petamus arva divites et insulas”: “we seek fields, blessed fields / and rich islands”).
410.21 conquered sage] Mistranscription of the original letter’s “Concord sage,” epithet for Ralph Waldo Emerson.
411.6 the Nortons’ dinner!] At Shady Hill, the home of Charles Eliot Norton (1827–1908) and his wife Susan Ridley Norton (née Sedgwick, 1838–1872). Norton was an author and professor of art history at Harvard, 1873–97, as well as a founder of The Nation in 1865 and a frequent contributor to The Atlantic Monthly and other publications. See James’s memorial essay on Norton in this volume, pp. 695–703.
411.13 Arthur Sedgwick] American lawyer (1844–1915) who worked on the editorial staff of The Nation and of the New York Evening Post (into which The Nation was merged).
414.34 Jane Norton?] Older sister (1824–1877) of Charles Eliot Norton.
416.3 the Gurneys] American professor of history at Harvard Ephraim Whitman Gurney (1829–1886), editor of the North American Review, 1868–1870, and his wife (from 1868) Ellen Sturgis Gurney (née Hooper, 1837–1887; sister of Marian, see note 391.23–24).
416.7 Godkin and his wife] Dublin-born author, editor, and publisher Edwin Lawrence Godkin (1831–1902), founder and editor of The Nation, 1865–81, and of the New York Evening Post, 1881–99. The American Frances Elizabeth Godkin (née Foote, 1835–1875) was the first of his two wives.
417.13–19 in ’69 . . . William had in ’68 been appointed to an instructorship in Psychology] The letter is not from 1869 but 1873; William James began teaching at Harvard as an instructor of anatomy and physiology in 1872, and was named professor of psychology in 1889.
417.32–33 Renouvier . . . Wordsworth] French philosopher Charles Bernard Renouvier (1815–1903); in February 1873 William wrote to Henry, “I have read hardly anything of late, some of the immortal Wordsworth’s excursion [The Excursion, 1814] having been the best.”
422.7–10 the spring of ’70 . . . Forrest, the American actor, of high renown] The letter is actually of March 4, 1873; Edwin Forrest (1806–1872).
423.5–6 the Bulwers, the Pelhams, the Coningsbys . . . N. P. Willises] English novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803–1873), author of the “fashionable” novel Pelham (1828); the eponymous protagonist of Coningsby (1844) by English novelist and prime minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881); N. P. Willis, see note 40.15–16.
424.8–9 William . . . his experience at the Somerville Asylum] Horatio Alger’s son William (1822–1905), poet and successful Unitarian preacher, had suffered a severe mental breakdown in Paris in 1871 and spent several months in the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts.
424.9 Charles Grinnell] American lawyer and author (1841–1916).
424.12 aussi] French: also.
424.12–13 J. G. hasn’t caught a Rosamund Vincy in Miss M.] The Jameses’ friend John Chipman Gray (1839–1915), a lawyer and Harvard Law School professor, married Anna Lyman Mason (1839–1915) in 1873. He had been a suitor of James’s cousin Mary Temple (b. 1845), known as Minnie or Minny, who died of tuberculosis in March 1870. Their correspondence is the basis of the final chapter of Notes of a Son and Brother, see pp. 531–70. Rosamund Vincy is the self-centered beauty who marries Dr. Lydgate in Middlemarch (1871–72) by George Eliot (pseud. Mary Ann Evans, 1819–1880).
424.15 Gail Hamilton] Pseudonym of American essayist and journalist Mary Abigail Dodge (1833–1896), to whom, as editor of Wood’s Household Magazine, 1872–73, James had sent his story “The Sweetheart of M. Briseux”— subsequently published in the Galaxy in June 1873.
424.17 Osgood] The Boston publisher James Ripley Osgood (1836–1892), whose May 1885 bankruptcy while The Bostonians was appearing was costly for James.
424.26 materials of a story] The basis of James’s story “Crawford’s Consistency” (Scribner’s Monthly, August 1876), which he did not collect in his lifetime.
424.29 Matthew Henry W.] American lawyer Matthew Henry Webster (1803 or 1804–1846).
424.35 Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian] American physicist Joseph Henry (1797–1878), inaugural secretary (director) of the Smithsonian Institution, 1846–78.
426.17 a good basis. . . .] Peter Collister has pointed out that James omits his father’s last words of this sentence in the original letter: “a good basis for a novel.”
426.27–29 the novel of Madame Sand’s . . . cherished Revue] Francia, first serialized in the Revue des Deux Mondes in 1871, by the French novelist George Sand (pseud. of Aurore Dupin, 1804–1876).
426.30 siege of Paris had been raised] In March 1871 a coalition of radical left-wing factions came to power and established the “Commune” in Paris in the aftermath of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. The conservative national government, under Adolphe Thiers (1797–1877), besieged and took control of the city in May at the cost of many thousands of lives. Most of those killed were summarily executed after the fighting ended.
427.5–6 Tamaris and Valvèdre and Mademoiselle La Quintinie] Novels by George Sand published in 1862, 1861, and 1863, respectively.
427.10 Edmond de Goncourt] French naturalist novelist, art critic, and man of letters (1822–1896) whose books were written in collaboration with his brother Jules (1830–1870) until the latter’s death.
427.11–12 robe de satin fleur-de-pêcher] French: dress of peach-blossom satin.
427.13 Blanche Amory] Character in Thackeray’s History of Arthur Pendennis (see note 243.39–40).
427.14 s’était fait faire] French: had made for herself.
427.16 Dîner Magny] The Dîners Magny were fortnightly gatherings of writers and artists at the restaurant Magny in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Regular participants from 1862 through about 1875 included the writers Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), the Goncourt brothers, Théophile Gautier (1811–1872), Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, and Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883).
427.32 y regarder] French: to look there.
427.36–37 La Famille de Germandre, La Ville Noire, Nanon and L’Homme de Neige] Novels by Sand published in 1861, 1860, 1872, and 1859, respectively.
428.27–28 Valentine and Jacques and suchlike . . . La Mare au Diable] Sand’s early novels Valentine (1832) and Jacques (1834); La Mare au Diable (The Devil’s Pool) was published in 1846.
428.31 Chauncey Wright] American philosopher of science and mathematician (1830–1875), lecturer at Harvard, and a defender of Darwinism. James saw Wright within a week of the latter’s death, and according to one account rushed to see his friend within minutes of his death.
429.9 yet to be writ in water.] Cf. the epitaph of English poet John Keats (1795–1821
), “Here lies one whose name was writ in water,” adapted from lines in Beaumont and Fletcher’s play Philaster, or Love Lies A-Bleeding (c. 1610): “All your better deeds / Shall be in water writ.”
429.28 Mount Desert] Mount Desert Island off the Maine coast.
429.33 The Eustace Diamonds] Novel (1871–73) by Anthony Trollope.
429.38–39 North American . . . Chauncey Wright’s on Mivart] The July 1871 issue of the North American Review contained an essay by Wright that attacked the anti-Darwinian arguments of English Jesuit biologist St. George Mivart (1827–1900).
429.40 Mr. Stirling on Buckle] Scottish Hegelian philosopher James Hutchison Stirling (1820–1909) writing on English historian Henry Thomas Buckle (1821–1862), author of the unfinished History of Civilization in England (1856, 1861).
430.38–431.1 notice of Gustave Droz’s Babolain (by T.S.P., I suppose)] Novel (1872) by French writer and artist Gustave Droz (1832–1895), reviewed by Thomas Sergeant Perry (see note 320.27). The following month, August 1871, James reviewed Droz’s “excellent novel” Autour d’une source in English translation (as Around a Spring) for The Atlantic Monthly.
431.4 souffle] French: breath.
431.13 J. Eliot Cabot, most accomplished of Bostonians] American man of letters James Elliot Cabot (1821–1903), literary executor of Ralph Waldo Emerson. James reviewed his memoir of Emerson in 1887 as “a biography intelligently and carefully composed.”
432.4 in se] Latin: in itself.
432.6 brutum fulmen] Futile threat, from Latin: insensible thunderbolt.
437.31 physical mishap] James’s back injury suffered while fighting a fire in Newport; see Chronology, 1860–62.
443.1 Maison Vauquer, in Le Père Goriot] See note 224.19.
443.9 de mieux] French: of the best.
444.9 plats] French: dishes.
444.20 in petto] Italian: in the breast; privately, inwardly.
446.11 great sculptor] Irish-born American artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), whose 1897 bronze relief sculpture depicting Robert Gould Shaw and the men of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry is installed across from the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street in Boston.
446.16 camp life at Readville] Camp Meigs, army training camp at Readville, Massachusetts, south of Boston.
446.17–18 44th of the same State] Before joining the 55th Massachusetts Infantry, Garth Wilkinson James served with the 44th Massachusetts Infantry. James’s visit to Readville occurred in the fall of 1862.
451.17–18 autocrat of that breakfast-table] A reference to The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858), a series of humorous and reflective essays by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894), originally published in The Atlantic Monthly.
452.3–4 the quips and cranks, the wreathed smiles] Cf Milton, “L’Allegro,” lines 26–28: “Jest and youthful Jollity, / Quips and cranks, and wanton wiles, / Nods, and becks, and wreathed smile.”
455.25–26 John May, son . . . distinguished Abolitionist of New York State] Joseph May (1836–1918), son of the Unitarian minister, abolitionist, and feminist Samuel Joseph May (1797–1871), who moved to Syracuse in 1845 and lived there the rest of his life.
455.33 by his name of Salter] Charles Christie Salter (1839–1870), who after graduating from divinity school was ordained as a Unitarian pastor.
458.16–22 silent Vanderpool . . . quasi-conservative New Jersey finish] Beach Vanderpool Jr., son of a mayor of Newark.
458.30–31 commensal] French: table companion.
459.19 John Bancroft] John Chandler Bancroft (1835–1901), who would go on to a successful career in business; he was also a European-trained painter and art collector, a friend of George Du Maurier (see note 270.15).
459.35–36 eminent historian of our country and earlier and later diplomatist] American historian George Bancroft (1800–1891), author of History of the United States (10 vols., 1834–74) and U.S. ambassador to Germany, 1867–74.
461.20 “Metternich!” or “Talleyrand!”] Renowned diplomats Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (1773–1859), foreign minister of Austria, 1809–48, and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838), foreign minister of France, 1797–99, 1799–1807, 1814–15.
462.22–23 after the fashion of Rousseau in a passage of the Confessions)] See book 4 of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, where he describes performing an inept musical composition of his own at the home of the Lausanne lawyer M. de Treytorrens.
464.30–465.3 the swim into my ken of Sainte-Beuve . . . Causeries du Lundi] Cf Keats’s sonnet “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer”: “Then felt I like some watcher of the skies / When a new planet swims into his ken”; for Sainte-Beuve, see note 197.11.
465.11–12 Dr. Theophilus Parsons, “Governor” Washburn and Professor Joel Parker] The law professors at Harvard while James was a student there: Parsons (1797–1882) was called by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. “almost if not quite, a man of genius”; Emory Washburn (1800–1877) had been governor of Massachusetts, 1854–55; Parker (1795–1875) was often found dry and difficult.
466.7 faire mon droit] French: to study law.
469.34 Parker’s] The Parker House, Boston hotel.
470.8–9 point de repère] French: landmark.
470.38–39 Miss Maggie Mitchell and Miss Kate Bateman] American actor Margaret Julia Mitchell (1832–1918); Kate Bateman, see note 52.35–53.2.
471.1–2 half-buried Puritan curse not so very long before devoted to such perversities.] The staging of plays in Boston was illegal for several decades after the Massachusetts legislature banned all theatrical productions in 1750.
471.20 Mr. Joe Jefferson] American actor and playwright Joseph Jefferson (1829–1905).
472.3 Pendennis’s Miss Fotheringay] Young actor in Thackeray’s novel, with whom Pendennis falls in love.
472.11 réduit] French: tiny room, retreat.
472.19 the despatch of manuscripts] Sheldon Novick in Henry James: The Young Master (1996) has identified the review in question, James’s first published work, as a review entitled “Miss Maggie Mitchell in ‘Fanchon the Cricket’” in an evening Boston newspaper, The Daily Traveller, on January 6, 1863.
475.3 portée] French: range.
477.1 G. A. J.] George Abbott James (1838–1917; no relation), who went on to practice law in Boston and married Elizabeth Cabot Lodge, sister of U.S. senator and author Henry Cabot Lodge; his sister married John Chandler Bancroft (see note 459.19).
479.25–26 after the fashion of the hare in the famous receipt.] “First catch your hare,” proverbial beginning of a recipe for jugged hare sometimes misattributed to one or other of the British cookbook writers Isabella Beeton (1836–1865) and Hannah Glasse (1708–1770).
481.5 G. W. J.] Garth Wilkinson James.
482.26 l’ingénieux petit] French: the clever little.
482.38 U.S.C.T., Colonel A. P. Hallowell . . . commanding;] United States Colored Troops; the regiment was commanded by Colonel Norwood Penrose Hallowell (1839–1914).
482.40–483.2 siege of Charleston . . . camp-covered “Folly Island” of his letters.] Folly Island off Charleston was a staging area for Union troops during the siege of Charleston in 1863.
483.3 Seymour’s raid on Florida] Union advances into Florida led by Brigadier General Truman Seymour (1824–1891), halted by the Confederate victory in the battle of Olustee, February 20, 1864.
483.6 General Ames’s] Brigadier General Adelbert Ames (1835–1933), later a senator and governor of Mississippi during Reconstruction.
483.13 Gen’l Hartwell] Major General Alfred Stedman Hartwell (1836–1912).
483.21–22 Brigadier-Generals Potter, Rufus Hatch] Union army officers Edward Elmer Potter (1823–1889) and John Porter Hatch (1822–1901). (Rufus Hatch [1832–1893] was a financier.)
486.38–39 under Foster] Major General John Gray Foster (1823–1874), at the time commander of the Department o
f North Carolina.
487.7 Halleck] Major General Henry Wager Halleck (1814–1872), general in chief of the Union armies, 1862–64.
487.9–11 near Goldsboro’ . . . Foster!] Foster led the victorious Union forces in fighting near Goldsboro, North Carolina, in December 1862, achieving the strategic objective of destroying a railroad bridge over the Neuse River.
488.12–13 Charles Lowell’s virtue and value and death] Colonel Charles Russell Lowell Jr. (1835–1864), a Harvard graduate, was fatally wounded at Cedar Creek, Virginia, on October 19, 1864, while leading the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry.
488.16–17 inspired kinsman’s Harvard Commemoration Ode] “Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration, July 21, 1865,” by American poet James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), Charles Russell Lowell Jr.’s uncle and later a good friend of James.
488.18 Two gallantest nephews] Charles Russell Lowell Jr.’s brother, First Lieutenant James Jackson Lowell (1837–1862), who had been at Harvard Law School, was fatally wounded in Virginia at the battle of Glendale on June 30, 1862.
488.26 Cabot] Wilky’s friend Cabot Russell.
488.26 Mr. Amos Lawrence of Boston] Merchant and abolitionist Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1886).
488.30–31 Perkins . . . Massachusetts 2nd] William Edward Perkins (b. 1838) rose to the rank of captain with the Massachusetts 2nd Infantry and was wounded at Chancellorsville.
492.11 Tillapenny River] The Tulifinny River in South Carolina.
492.33–34 The taking of Fort McAllister] Fort McAllister, near Savannah, Georgia, was captured by Sherman’s forces on December 13, 1864.
492.36 Oguchee and Ossahaw] Ogeechee River and Ossabaw Sound.
493.11 Forrest is killed] An inaccurate report of the death of Confederate Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877), cavalry division commander in the Army of Tennessee.
493.12 Rousseau] Major General Lovell Harrison Rousseau (1818–1869), commander of the District of Nashville, 1863–65.
493.12 Thomas . . . Hood] In the battle of Nashville, December 15–16, 1864, a Union force of 55,000 men under Major General George Henry Thomas (1816–1870) defeated the army of Confederate Major General John Bell Hood (1831–1879) and forced it to retreat into northern Mississippi.
