Fred Kaplan is the author of Miracles of Rare Devices; Dickens and Mesmerism; Thomas Carlyle, A Biography (nominated for the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize); Sacred Tears; Gore Vidal: A Biography; and Dickens: A Biography, the last available in paperback from Johns Hopkins.
Biographer Kaplan ( Dickens: A Biography , LJ 9/1/88; Thomas Carlyle: A Biography , LJ 11/15/83) brings us a lucid and vibrant account of the novelist's creative imagination as well as his renowned personal life. Concentrating on the genesis and inspiration for James's creative output, Kaplan for the most part avoids strict literary criticism that would slow down the fast-moving pace of the biography. He relies almost exclusively on the letters and diaries of James and his associates to convey both James's spirit and the background for his work. Though not as all-encompassing as Leon Edel's five-volume opus ( Henry James , 1953-72), this volume is a highly recommended alternative to the one-volume condensation, Henry James: A Life ( LJ 10/15/85) and a good companion to the biographical study of the James family by R.W.B. Lewis ( The Jameses: A Family Narrative, LJ 8/1/91). See The Correspondence of William James . Vol . 1: William and Henry, 1861-1884 reviewed above.--Ed.-- Martin R. Kalfatovic, Natl. Museum of American Art/Natl. Portrait Gallery Lib., Smithsonian Inst., Washington, D.C.
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