Announcements

Leon Edel Prize

We are pleased to publish in this issue the thirteenth Leon Edel Prize Essay, “Interest and Aesthetic Judgment in Henry James’s Late Novels” by Oliver Brewis. Sincere thanks to Philip Horne and Aaron Jaffe, who served as judges for this year’s contest.

The Leon Edel Prize is awarded annually for the best essay on Henry James by a beginning scholar. The prize carries with it an award of $150, and the prize-winning essay will be published in HJR. The competition is open to applicants who have not held a full-time academic appointment for more than four years. Independent scholars and graduate students are encouraged to apply. Essays should be 20–30 pages (including notes), original, and not under submission elsewhere or previously published. Send submissions (four copies, produced according to current MLA style) to Susan M. Griffin, Editor, The Henry James Review, Department of English, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 40292. Author’s name should not appear on the manuscript. Please identify essays as submissions for the Leon Edel Prize. A brief curriculum vitae should be included. Deadline: November 1, 2012.

Reading James

Who reads James? When? Where? How? Why? What did James want from his readers? How did he read his own writings and those of others? New work on the history, sociology, culture, psychology, even the biology of reading has made these questions fresh. This special issue of the Henry James Review invites contributions on all aspects of Jamesian reading.

Reading James can be, quite literally, materially different, depending upon whether the reader encounters the text in serial form, as volume from a circulating library, on loan from another reader, as part of the New York Edition, in a fine binding or a Norton anthology or on a website. And readers of James are various: writers, critics, theorists; philosophers, art historians, historians. How do disciplinary needs, methodologies, and assumptions shape such readers? Then, too, adaptation, quotation, and translation can all be viewed as forms of reading. What commercial considerations, practicalities, and formal requirements come into play? What does it mean to read James in Tehran, in Beijing, in Paris, in London? What about those times when James is (nearly) unread? Which James works have been popular? Which neglected? What gets reprinted? When? Why?

Readers are, of course, shaped by James. His criticism gives us theories of reading. James depicts readers in his fiction, even as he manipulates those who read him. His metaphors can be alarming—he speaks of catching readers and drugging them—and alluring: invitations to dream together. For James, “The work is divided between the writer and the reader”; both were parts he played avidly.

One-page proposals or short (10–12 pages) essays should be sent by March 1, 2013, to:

Susan M. Griffin, Editor
Henry James Review
Department of English
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
USA
E-mail: hjamesr@louisville.edu; FAX: 502-852-4182

HJR Board Members

Welcome to Daniel Mark Fogel, Victoria Coulson, and Donatella Izzo, the newest members of HJR’s editorial board. We look forward to working with them. Our thanks and best wishes also go to Jean Franz Blackall, Sarah Daugherty, Robert L. Gale, Richard A. Hocks, Elsa Nettels, Lyall H. Powers, and Cheryl Torsney, who will be stepping down as editorial board members.

We are sad to report the death of fellow James scholar Robert K. Martin on February 20, 2012.

Correction

On page 84 of the last issue of the Henry James Review (33.1), the list given for Appendix A in Michael Anesko’s article, “My Fair Henry?!” was incomplete. The complete table is provided on the next page.