James, Henry

James, Henry (1843–1916), American novelist, who spent most of his life in England, and in 1915 became a British subject. He had a great love for the theatre, but after the hostile reception which greeted his Guy Domville (1895) when it was produced by George Alexander at the St James's Theatre, he withdrew, and nothing further of his was seen on the stage until Forbes-Robertson played Captain Yule in The High Bid (1909) at Her (then His) Majesty's Theatre; it was revived in 1967 at the Mermaid Theatre, where The Other House, written in 1893, had its first performance in 1969. The Outcry, written in 1909, was performed posthumously by the Stage Society in 1917 and was revived at the Arts Theatre in 1968. The theatrical success James had longed for came after his death through dramatizations of his novels by other hands—Berkeley Square (1928), based on the unfinished The Sense of the Past; The Heiress (1947), based on Washington Square; The Innocents (1950), based on The Turn of the Screw; The Aspern Papers (1959), adapted by Michael Redgrave, who also played ‘H.J.’ in the London production, Maurice Evans playing the role in New York in 1962; The Wings of the Dove (1963); A Boston Story, based on Watch and Ward, and The Spoils, based on The Spoils of Poynton (both 1968).