“Hallman’s eloquent analysis of the [letters’] and the brothers’ changing relationship over the years makes this an indispensable read." Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
The more than eight hundred letters of the correspondence of William and Henry James span half a century and amount to the most comprehensive exchange in existence among figures of such deep and wide-ranging influence. The correspondence was published in full only in 1994, when the University of Virginia Press released the last of three volumes dedicated solely to the brothers’ letters. Deeply intimate, sometimes antagonistic, rife with wit, and on the cutting edge of art and science, the letters paint a portrait of the brothers’ relationship and measure the manner in which their dialogue shaped each man’s thinking, and, through them, much of the philosophy, science, and literature of the century that followed.