From the Library of Henry James
La vie des abeilles.
Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier. Eugène Fasquelle, éditeur, 1901.
Price: $2,000.00
About the item
Huitième mille. 311 pp. 8vo. Half calf and paper covered board binding. Binding rubbed around the edges, paper brittle and first three leaves loose.
Item #371819
Henry James' copy of Materlinck's Life of the Bee, with his signature to the half-title, and the Author's name and the title of the book are underlined in pencil.
James loved Maeterlinck, calling his "a beautful mind" (ALS to Violet Hunt, 1902, June 17), and was a fan of his plays, which he saw in London, even going so far as describing his heroine, Milly Theale in the Wings of the Dove, converse with her companion, Kate Croy in a way that resembles "some dim scene in a Maeterlinck play."
Groups of James' library books were sold at Parke Bernet in 1950-51.
