The text reprinted in this volume is based upon an examination of the five printed versions of The American (first published in 1877) which appeared in James's lifetime, and it is preceded by his Preface to the New York Edition (1907). The textual history of the novel is traced in a note on the text; a list of substantive variants and emendations; a facsimile manuscript page showing James's method of revision; and a list of the installments of the novel as they appeared in The Atlantic.

Preface

The Text of The American

 Preface to the New York Edition (1907)

 The American

 A Note on the Text

 Textual Variants

 Editor's Emendations

 Installments of The American Appearing m

  The Atlantic Monthly

 Page of The American (original version), as revised by

  Henry James (19o6)

Backgrounds and Sources

  Henry James to Mrs. Henry James, Sr.,

    October 13, 1869

  Henry James to Charles Eliot Norton,

    January 16, 1871

  Henry James to Grace Norton, January 14,1874

  Henry James·Review of A Foregone Conclusion

  Henry James·Review of Notes on Paris

  Henry James to F. P. Church, December 1, 1875

  Henry James·From Parisian Sketches

  Henry James to William Dean Howells,

    February 3, 1876

  Henry James to F. P. Church, February 4, 1876

  William Dean HoweUs to F. P. Church,

    February 29, 1876

  Henry James to F. P. Church, March 3, 1876

  William Dean Howells to F. P. Church,

    March 5, 1876

  Henry James to William Dean Howells,

    May 28, 1876

  Henry James to William James, July 4, 1876

  William James to Henry James, July 5, 1876

Henry James to William James, july 29,1876

Henry James to William Dean Howells,

October 24, 1876

Henry James to William Dean Howells,

December 18, 1876

Henry James to Mrs. Henry James, Sr.,

December 24, 1876

Henry James to James Ripley Osgood,

January 1, 1877

Henry James to Mrs. Henry James, Sr.,

January 31, 1877

Henry James to William Dean Howells,

February 2, 1877

Henry James to William Dean Howells,

March 3o, 1877

Henry James to Thomas Sergeant Perry,

June 25, 1877

Henry James to William James, June 28,1877

Henry James to Thomas Sergeant Perry,

March 22, 1878

Frederick Sheldon·The American Colony

in France

Henry James to William James, May x, 1878

Henry James to William Dean Howells,

July 14 (157), 1879

Henry James·Americans Abroad

Henry James·From Hawthorne

Henry James to William Dean Howells,

January 31, 1880

Henry James·From His Notebooks

Henry James to Alice James, June 6,189o

Henry James to Edmund Gosse, January 3,1891

Henry James to Mrs. Hugh Bell, January 8, 1891

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson,

January 12, 1891

Henry James to William James, February 6, 1891

Henry James to Robert Louis Stevenson,

February 18, 1891

Henry James to Robert Herrick, August 7, 1907

Henry James to Mrs. G. W. Prothero,

September 14, 1913

Criticism

 Contemporary Reception

  AMERICAN REVIEWS

  From The Nation, January 11, 1877

  From The Atlantic Monthly, March 1877

  From The Independent, May 17, 1877

  From The Nation, May 31, 1877

  From The Atlantic Monthly, July 1877

  From The Galaxy, July 1877

  From The Literary World, July 1877

  From Scribner's, July 1877

  From Appleton's Journal, August 1877

  From The Eclectic, August 1877

  From The Library Table, August 30, 1877

  From The North American Review,

    September 1877

  From The Catholic World, December 1878

  ENGLISH REVIEWS

  From The Athenaeum, July 7, 1877

  From The Academy, July 14, 1877

  From The Spectator, July 21, 1877

  From The Saturday Review, August 18, 1877

 From The Graphic, September 8, 1877

 From The Academy, May 10, 1879

 From The British Quarterly Review, July 1879

 From The Westminster Review, January 1880

Twentieth-Century Criticism

   Leon Edel·[A Portrait Rich in National

    Ambiguities]

 Oscar Cargill·[A Surge of Patriotic Indignation]

 Irving Howe·Henry James and the Millionaire

 James W. Tuttleton·Henry James: The

    Superstitious Valuation of Europe

 Richard Poirier·[The Comedy of Fixed and

    Free Characters]

 Royal A. Gettmann·Henry James's Revision

    of The American

 Leon Edel·[The Revised Ending of the Play]

Selected Bibliography