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Correspondence To the Editor: When I was In Prof. Lewis Simpson's NEH Seminar last summer, I told some of your colleagues about the following experience. Before visiting Newport, R. I., I asked my son who lives there to find out exactly where Henry James's house was. He asked the tour guides, the newspaper, and several longtime residents, but no one knew. When I arrived I went to the library, where I found that several librarians did not know that Will and Henry were related. We spent some time in the Newport Room and there found a mention of onetime resident Will James. I left my telephone number, and that afternoon a research librarian called me to say that the family had lived at the corner of Spring and Lee Streets. We drove to that corner, a T-shaped Intersection, where we found a parking lot on one corner, a funeral home on the other, and one of the large typical Newport mansions and grounds facing them. We decided that the parking lot must have been the site of the James house and went home. Later I decided to make one more try. I called the funeral home, and a man named O'Neill was pleased to tell me that the building had been owned and inhabited by the James family. He was quite excited to receive my query and invited me to come over for a tour. By that time I was ready to fly back to Alabama, but I promised to visit him on my next trip to Rhode Island. I asked him why he did not place a small plaque somewhere to help curiosity seekers like myself, and he replied that he had thought It would not be In good taste. The aftermath of the story Is that his son and mine have become golfing friends. I enclose a picture because I thought you might like to see how the home now looks. Sincerely yours, Dr. Sue L. Klmbal I 274 House in Newport occupied by James family. Photo by Nancy Lemme. 275 ...

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