James (Henry) Autograph Letter signed from the author to Aline Harland, 12pp. recto and verso in black ink on letter Reform Club, Pall Mall, SW1 letterhead, 8vo, 22 October, 1905, folds, preserved in folding chemise and custom morocco-backed drop-back box.

⁂ A long and excellent letter from James to the wife of his friend, and founding editor of The Yellow Book, Henry Harland.

At this time Aline Harland was caring for her husband who had been suffering for years from tuberculosis, to which he would succumb on 20th December, 1905. In the letter James displays an unusual level of emotion on learning of the Harland's departure for Italy: "The answer came back from the house itself that you had just left England - at which, in spite of missing you I almost wept with relief - so sovereign a right step had I felt it yet so cruelly difficult". He also discusses his own affairs "I am in town again by reason of some work on Lamb House.. I plug away at my American book [The American Scene, 1907] & find it very difficult... I go tonight to see the Gosses" and includes a waspish comment about Henry Irving "[he] has been buried in the Abbey - to my stupefaction but to that apparently of no ones else."