“For the student of American literature in general, this little book is indispensable.” —Lionel Trilling, author of The Liberal Imagination and Beyond Culture Henry James’s acclaimed 1879 biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne is an entertaining and incisive survey of this author’s life and work. James contrasts the sparse cultural landscape of nineteenth-century America with Europe’s achievements and traditions, and he examines the challenges this situation posed to Hawthorne’s artistic aims. He describes Hawthorne’s literary journey from obscurity to recognition, evaluating his novels and praising his sketches and tales. Sometimes critical of its subject, but always engaging and sympathetic, James’s biography of Hawthorne is a penetrating assessment of Hawthorne and a keen commentary on American culture and civilization, with James positioning himself as part of a more cosmopolitan generation of writers. This biography tells us much about Hawthorne and his era, and about James’s conception of himself as a writer and his perspective on American literary tradition. This Warbler Classics edition includes an Introduction, a Note on the Text, Annotations, a Biographical Timeline, and Further Reading by William E. Cain. Henry James (1843–1916) was born in New York City and educated there and in London, Paris, and Geneva. Cosmopolitan and multilingual, he spent most of his life and literary career in Europe. He wrote 22 novels, 112 short stories, 12 plays, and more than 200 essays and reviews as well as travel books and autobiographies. Considered among the greatest authors in world literature, his best-known novels include The Europeans, Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, and The Ambassadors. William E. Cain is the Mary Jewett Gaiser Professor of English at Wellesley College. He is the editor of American Literature, a two-volume anthology of American literature; the author of American Literary Criticism, 1900–1945; and a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Henry James (1843-1916) was born in New York City and educated there and in London, Paris, and Geneva. Cosmopolitan and multilingual, he spent most of his life and literary career in Europe. He wrote 22 novels, 112 short stories, 12 plays, and more than 200 essays and reviews as well as travel books and autobiographies. Considered among the greatest authors in world literature, his best-known novels include The Europeans, Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, and The Ambassadors. William E. Cain is the Mary Jewett Gaiser Professor of English at Wellesley College. He is the editor of American Literature, a two-volume anthology of American literature; the author of American Literary Criticism, 1900-1945; and a co-editor of The Norton Anthology of Criticism and Theory.