The turn of the screw

Henry James was born into a wealthy family the second of five children born to a prominent theologian Henry James Sr. His father placed high value in his children’s education (James’s brother William James became a pioneer of psychology and philosophy). The family spent many years in Europe’s major cities: the first twenty years of James’s life were spent travelling between Europe and the United States and in these cities he was tutored by some of the countries’ best known intellectuals. After a brief time spent at Harvard Law School in 1862 James—who had always been a voracious reader—turned to literature which later became his profession. While traveling through and living in Europe he wrote his first novels often choosing characters who like him lived lives caught between Europe and the United States. He later established for himself a strong reputation as both a novelist and essayist and he kept company with some of the greatest writers and thinkers of his time among them Stephen Crane Edith Wharton Joseph Conrad Ivan Turgenev and Robert Lewis Stevenson. Startled by the outbreak of World War 1 James chose to become a British subject in July of 1915 as a gesture of protest against America’s refusal to enter the war. His health declined and after suffering a stroke James died and his ashes were buried in the Cambridge Cemetery in Massachusetts.