[Black Sun Press] [James, Henry, and Walter Berry] Letters of Henry James to Walter Berry

Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1928. First edition, one of only 16 unnumbered copies on Japan Paper, with an original four-page autograph letter (written partly across on first page), signed by Henry James, to Walter Berry, tipped in at front, with original mailing envelope at same. 4to. Text printed in black and in red. With a facsimile frontispiece letter. Publisher's stiff printed wrappers; in original glassine; book-plate of New York writer and theater producer Crosby Gaige on inner front wrapper; in original gold paper-board folder, original red silk ties intact; in quarter black morocco slip case and chemise. Minkoff A-16; Edel & Laurence C8; BAL 10713

A near-fine copy, one of only 16 printed on Japanese vellum, and with an original four-page autograph letter, signed by Henry James, to his friend Walter Van Rensselaer Berry, cousin and mentor of Black Sun Press founder Harry Crosby. This autograph letter appears as number 15 in this volume's 16 printed letters. Dated October 28, 1912, it was penned while James was bedridden with a bad case of shingles: "...My valued typist has had to quit me for 10 days--hence this effort to flourish, myself a shaky pen. But I sit up to the table with difficulty, not to say, at moments, with anguish--so I wont prolong my flounderings. Only I want to tell you that I inhale as the very breath of Eden the intimation I seem to gather that your iron cruel affection has appeared to yield in close degree to your recent experience in London. Thankfully, my dear Walter, is 'worth a lot' to me, & I cherish the fond apprehensions. May your sense of better impressions steal over you more and more insidiously. I groan still over my missed talk with you--but making that up, & at no distant hour, is an idea to make the wings of recovery spread in the grand manner--from the moment they once begin to flap at all. I throw myself (even out of this mess) into the sweet pastime of your review, & your belle ordonnance of your penates..." James closes the letter with a possible reference to Edith Wharton, a lifelong close friend and confidant of Berry's: "I seem to hear afar off the returning rustle of the most far-trailing of Princesses, and I prepare myself to kiss the hem of her 50th flounce (if flounces are hemmed this season) I hope it--she seems to me to call at last for such hemming-in. Do, when you come back for 'another bottle' as my Doctor says, persuade her to be de la partie..."

Berry (1859-1927) was the scion of the old New York Van Rensselaer family. Born in Paris, partly raised in Albany, New York, and educated at Harvard, he became an internationally respected lawyer and diplomat. A fixture in Parisian social and literary circles, Berry was a lifelong confidant and literary advisor of Edith Wharton, and friends with Marcel Proust and Henry James, the latter with whom he frequently corresponded (James remarked of Berry's "beautiful...insolently exquisite hand." [Wolff, Black Sun, p. 121]). To Harry Crosby, Berry served as a "surrogate father, who loved and supported him, encouraged him to quit the bank and to write, gave him books and money and friendship, introduced him to everyone in Paris--French and American, but especially French--whom Harry could hope to meet..." (Wolff, p. 119). Upon his death in 1927, Berry bequeathed to Crosby part of his large library (8,000 volumes, including these letters), which Crosby then infamously dispersed in a madcap fashion over several months in 1928.

Crosby Gaige (1882-1949)

Christie's, New York, February 7, 1986, Modern Literature from the Library of James Gilvarry, Lot 116

Christie's, New York, June 7, 1990, Frederick R. Koch Foundation Collection, Lot 62

[Black Sun Press] [James, Henry, and Walter Berry] Letters of Henry James to Walter Berry