A CHRONOLOGY OF HENRY JAMES
COMPILED BY LEON EDEL

1843	Born 15 April at No. 21 Washington Place, New York City.
1843–4	Taken abroad by parents to Paris and London: period of residence at Windsor.
1845–55	Childhood in Albany and New York.
1855–8	Attends schools in Geneva, London, Paris, and Boulogne-surmer and is privately tutored.
1858	James family settles in Newport, Rhode Island.
1859	At scientific school in Geneva. Studies German in Bonn.
1860	At school in Newport. Receives back injury on eve of Civil War while serving as volunteer fireman. Studies art briefly. Friendship with John La Farge.
1862–3	Spends term in Harvard Law School.
1864	Family settles in Boston and then in Cambridge. Early anonymous story and unsigned reviews published.
1865	First signed story published in Atlantic Monthly.
1869–70	Travels in England, France, and Italy. Death of his beloved cousin Minny Temple.
1870	Back in Cambridge, publishes first novel in Atlantic, Watch and Ward.
1872–4	Travels with sister Alice and aunt in Europe; writes impressionistic travel sketches for the Nation. Spends autumn in Paris and goes to Italy to write first large novel.
1874–5	On completion of Roderick Hudson tests New York City as residence; writes much literary journalism for Nation. First three books published: Transatlantic Sketches, A Passionate Pilgrim (tales), and Roderick Hudson.
1875–6	Goes to live in Paris. Meets Ivan Turgenev and through him Flaubert, Zola, Daudet, Maupassant, and Edmond de Goncourt. Writes The American.
1876–7	Moves to London and settles in 3 Bolton Street, Piccadilly. Revisits Paris, Florence, Rome.
1878	‘Daisy Miller’, published in London, establishes fame on both sides of the Atlantic. Publishes first volume of essays, French Poets and Novelists.
1879–82	The Europeans, Washington Square, Confidence, The Portrait of a Lady.
1882–3	Revisits Boston: first visit to Washington. Death of parents.
1884–6	Returns to London. Sister Alice comes to live near him. Four-teen-volume collection of novels and tales published. Writes The Bostonians and The Princess Casamassima, published in the following year.
1886	Moves to flat at 34 De Vere Gardens West.
1887	Sojourn in Italy, mainly Florence and Venice. ‘The Aspern Papers’, The Reverberator, ‘A London Life’. Friendship with grand-niece of Fenimore Cooper—Constance Fenimore Woolson.
1888	Partial Portraits and several collections of tales.
1889–90	The Tragic Muse.
1890–1	Dramatizes The American, which has a short run. Writes four comedies, rejected by producers.
1892	Alice James dies in London.
1894	Miss Woolson commits suicide in Venice. James journeys to Italy and visits her grave in Rome.
1895	He is booed at first night of his play Guy Domville. Deeply depressed, he abandons the theatre.
1896–7	The Spoils of Poynton, What Maisie Knew.
1898	Takes long lease of Lamb House, in Rye, Sussex. The Turn of the Screw published.
1899–1900	The Awkward Age, The Sacred Fount. Friendship with Conrad and Wells.
1902–4	The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl. Friendships with H. C. Andersen and Jocelyn Persse.
1905	Revisits USA after 20-year absence, lectures on Balzac and the speech of Americans.
1906–10	The American Scene. Edits selective and revised ‘New York Edition’ of his works in 24 volumes. Friendship with Hugh Walpole.
1910	Death of brother, William James.
1913	Sargent paints his portrait as 70th birthday gift from some 300 friends and admirers. Writes autobiographies, A Small Boy and Others, and Notes of a Son and Brother.
1914	Notes on Novelists. Visits wounded in hospitals.
1915	Becomes a British subject.
1916	Given Order of Merit. Dies 28 February in Chelsea, aged 72. Funeral in Chelsea Old Church. Ashes buried in Cambridge, Mass., family plot.
1976	Commemorative tablet unveiled in Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey, 17 June.