Henry James (1843-1916) was an American born writer who spent much of his life in England.  He wrote 20 novels, 12 plays and 112 stories, as well as works of literary criticism, essays, memoirs, and an autobiography.
 
Henry James was born on 15th April 1843 in New York City, the second child in a wealthy family.  His father, Henry James Sr., was a Christian socialist, and one of the most widely known intellectuals in America.  His mother, Mary, was a selfless and devoted mother and wife upon whom Henry James Sr. depended.
 
The James family were avid travellers, often moving between Europe and America.  This gave Henry a vast wealth of experience, which, in addition to his vociferous reading of the classics of American, English, French, German and Russian literature,  cultivated a curious, creative, thoughtful and articulate young mind. At the age of 19 James briefly entered Harvard law school, but soon gave up when he found that he much preferred reading literature to studying law.  Around this time, the American Civil war broke out, and James sought to enlist in the Union cause.  He was prevented from doing so by a back injury.
 
In 1869 the James family had settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at this point James left home to travel in Europe.  His travels included prolonged stays in Rome and Paris, and in 1877 he settled in London where he supported himself as a journalist.  James continued to live in London until his death.
 
Henry James's early novels drew strongly upon his experiences travelling, portraying interactions between Americans and Europeans.  His first novel Watch And Ward was published in 1871 was written whilst James was travelling through Paris and Venice.   Other novels of this 'international period' include The American (1877), Daisy Miller (1879)and Portrait of a Lady (1881). During the intermediate stage of his novel writing James exploited his acute  social perceptiveness, writing about contemporary society and human relationships.  Works of this period include The Bostonians (1886) and What Maisie Knew (1987). 
 
In James's final novels his writing skills and psychological perceptiveness climaxed.  It was during this twilight period of his novel writing that James wrote his three masterpieces,  The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904). In 1904-5 James travelled to America and arranged for the heavily revised New York editions (1907-9) of his work to be published.  James became an English citizen in 1915 to demonstrate his solidarity with Britain during the Great War, and in protest of America's refusal to enter the war.  He was involved in war relief efforts. 
 
In December 1915 James suffered from a stroke, and three months later, on February 28th 1916, he died in London, aged 72.