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Already the subject of articles in the International Herald Tribune and the London Times, Beloved Boy is a remarkable collection of letters tracing Henry James's fascination with and enduring devotion to a young Norwegian-American artist. James was already fifty-six when, visiting Rome in 1899, he was introduced to the twenty-seven--year-old Hendrik Andersen. In an uncanny instance of life imitating art, Andersen bore an unmistakable resemblance to the title character of James's 1875 novel Roderick Hudson—a figure who, like Andersen, was a young sculptor venturing into life as an expatriate in Italy. Although his initial meeting with Andersen was brief, James was deeply moved by the young man. He wrote to Andersen almost immediately after his return to his Sussex home, and remained a faithful correspondent until his own death in 1915.
The two men met on only seven occasions, and never for more than a few days, so their friendship was almost entirely epistolary. The letters assembled here, nearly half of which are previously unpublished, exhibit a voice decidedly more vulnerable than that which we usually associate with James. They also shed new light on the writer's homoerotic leanings, as he approaches Andersen with a passion, as well as a tenderness, typically reserved for a lover.
Even greater than his feelings for Andersen, however, was James's devotion to art. Despite an initially positive opinion, James was forced to reassess Andersen's work, which became increasingly grandiose– exhibiting "megalomania," as James bluntly diagnosed it. The sculptor's tendency toward monumentality, including plans for a utopian "World City," were at odds with James's commitment to observing reality in all its complexity and imperfection. Despite this, James's affection for his friend never wavered; his letters remained occasions to celebrate the youth and beauty personified for him by Andersen.
University of Virginia Press
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Rodger Thebeau
reviewed Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899-1915 on November 18, 2016 Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899-1915
Behold, unwrap the highest genius. Like Keats alone among poets, Dickinson's letters exhibit that genius. In fact, she compares winter to, " Keats's bird, 'who hops and hops in little journeys.'" Andrew Marvell's letters, for instance, are humdrum affairs mostly written in his public voice as parliamentary representative. ED writes with her poet's ear, "Friends are gems--infrequent" (II.352, 1859). Or, check this sentiment which would compound among moderns (even inaugural poets): "I have heard many notedly Bad readers, and a fine one would be almost a fairy surprise" (II.345, Jan '59).
Her verses punctuate her letters, letters which are often as epigrammatic as her verse; in her last year, "Fear makes us all martial." Apply that to the gun promoters today.
One two month visit to the UK for research, I would read a paragraph in Gilbert White every day, as a Naturalist's Bible. Decades earlier, I did the same with Dickinson's letters. One can open them at random, and find within a page or two something unprecedented and yet familiar, like this today.
After telling Loo (L Norcross) about the vegetable she sent, to be eaten with mustard, she observes:
"I enjoy much with a precious fly, during sister's absence, not one of your blue monsters, but a timid creature, that hops from pane to pane of her white house, so very cheerfully, and hums and thrums, a sort of speck piano."
Then she adds, almost as surprisingly, "Tell Vinnie I'll kill him the day she comes, for I sha'n't need him any more, and she don't mind flies" we'd say, she Does mind them (II.353).
There are revelations about her famous personal avoidance of others; from the friends/gems letter to Loo, she confides, "For you remember, dear, you are one of the ones from whom I do not run away! I keep an ottoman in my heart exclusively for you." And she reveals with profundity some of her avoidance: "My own words so burn and chill me that the temperature of other minds is too new an awe" (to Chickering, 1883).
Her epistolary attentions range far, including of course, her assessment of the form in which she writes," A letter always seemed to me like Immortality, for is it not the mind alone, without corporeal friend?" (1882).
And she even appears to have said, like the Reformation martyrs, her own last words, but in a letter: "Little Cousins, Called back."
Here she immortalizes a book title (by one Conway) she had read, so her last words are also a literary allusion.
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Add Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899-1915, Already the subject of articles in the International Herald Tribune and the London Times, Beloved Boy is a remarkable collection of letters tracing Henry James's fascination with and enduring devotion to a young Norwegian-American artist. Ja, Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899-1915 to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899-1915, Already the subject of articles in the International Herald Tribune and the London Times, Beloved Boy is a remarkable collection of letters tracing Henry James's fascination with and enduring devotion to a young Norwegian-American artist. Ja, Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899-1915 to your collection on WonderClub |
