145

Lot 145: Henry James Signed Letter 1878

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Lot  145: Henry James Signed Letter 1878
<b>Autographs</b><hr><b>'I Had Rather Be Miserable In Rome Than Comfortable In London'</b>

<b>HENRY JAMES, Great American novelist of whom T.S. Eliot said, 'He had a mind so fine no idea could violate it.'</b>
Autograph Letter Signed ('H. James'), 8 pages on 2 integral leaves, 5' x 8', 3 Bolton Street W., April 3 [1878]. To the wife of the painter John Rollin Tilton, in Rome. Choice Very Fine. James begins this wonderfully long letter by responding to friendÕs praise of, most likely, his recently published novel, The American. In part: 'I thank you very kindly for your too appreciative letter, over which, as I read it, I Ôgrew faintÕ like Porphyro in KeatÕs poem, as I regretfully and systematically do over all emanations from Rome. You may be sad, dull, uncomfortable, justly indignant...but at all events you live in Rome, in April...I had rather be miserable in Rome than comfortable in London: which...I am not at present, as IÕm stupefied with a bad cold & until just now... had no diversion from the same but to stare wearily out of my window at the dirty drizzle of this misnamed springtime...no turquoise mornings or topaz afternoons...I should certainly be in Rome at this hour if I had not 50 good reasons for being in London...' James also mentions the death of King Victor Emmanuel II, a book on Constantinople, and the Zulu War.