JAMES, HENRY. Autograph letter signed "Henry James") to Dr. Percy Wells, Secretary of the Royal Society of Literature, Reform Club, Pall Mall, 10 March 1912. 9 pages, 8vo, on Reform Club stationery. JAMES RECOMMENDS H.G. WELLS'S ELECTION TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE "Under the impression that there is a meeting of the Academic Committee of the R.S.L. tomorrow,...I am moved to say a word to you on one of those questions of distinguished additions to our body....On the occasion of the receipt of our last two or three Ballot-papers I have been struck with the manner in which the candidature of Mr. H.G. Wells blocks the way, as it were; creating on its behalf a certain urgency ...My own sense is that the Academic Committee will gain in completeness & representative quality (as to Literature) by the election of Mr. Wells...What we are in essence is a muster of the talents , and Mr. Wells's talent is so marked & copious & original as to leave a visible & regrettable gap among us by its absence. We are an array of literary characters--and he is, among the younger men, by general recognition a literary character of the liveliest interest, vividness & force...." James urges that Wells's candidacy be dealt with promptly, and adds that "when he is elected...we shall proceed to the consideration of other names with more care and more logic....I myself shall be conscious of little zeal in voting for anyone else before we have gathered Mr. Wells in..." Wells was, in time, elected, but turned the distinction down. "Wells pointed out that as early as Mankind in the Making he had opposed anything like an academy. The writer, he argued, was essentially 'anarchic' and flourished best in an atmosphere of freedom and diversity....James stood on the side of art and responsibility. Art was order and no artist could be 'anarchic.'" (L. Edel and G.N. Ray, Henry James & H.G. Wells: A Record of their Friendship etc. Urbana, 1958, pp. 31-32). Apparently unpublished, not in Letters , ed. Edel. Provenance : James Gilvarry (sale, Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 162).
JAMES, HENRY. Autograph letter signed "Henry James") to Dr. Percy Wells, Secretary of the Royal Society of Literature, Reform Club, Pall Mall, 10 March 1912. 9 pages, 8vo, on Reform Club stationery. JAMES RECOMMENDS H.G. WELLS'S ELECTION TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE "Under the impression that there is a meeting of the Academic Committee of the R.S.L. tomorrow,...I am moved to say a word to you on one of those questions of distinguished additions to our body....On the occasion of the receipt of our last two or three Ballot-papers I have been struck with the manner in which the candidature of Mr. H.G. Wells blocks the way, as it were; creating on its behalf a certain urgency ...My own sense is that the Academic Committee will gain in completeness & representative quality (as to Literature) by the election of Mr. Wells...What we are in essence is a muster of the talents , and Mr. Wells's talent is so marked & copious & original as to leave a visible & regrettable gap among us by its absence. We are an array of literary characters--and he is, among the younger men, by general recognition a literary character of the liveliest interest, vividness & force...." James urges that Wells's candidacy be dealt with promptly, and adds that "when he is elected...we shall proceed to the consideration of other names with more care and more logic....I myself shall be conscious of little zeal in voting for anyone else before we have gathered Mr. Wells in..." Wells was, in time, elected, but turned the distinction down. "Wells pointed out that as early as Mankind in the Making he had opposed anything like an academy. The writer, he argued, was essentially 'anarchic' and flourished best in an atmosphere of freedom and diversity....James stood on the side of art and responsibility. Art was order and no artist could be 'anarchic.'" (L. Edel and G.N. Ray, Henry James & H.G. Wells: A Record of their Friendship etc. Urbana, 1958, pp. 31-32). Apparently unpublished, not in Letters , ed. Edel. Provenance : James Gilvarry (sale, Christie's New York, 7 February 1986, lot 162).
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