8vo, first American edition, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY JAMES TO HIS FRIEND FORD MADOX FORD ON FRONT ENDPAPER A FEW DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION ("To Ford Madox Hueffer | Henry James | Rye, Nov: 7: 1905"), frontispiece and illustrated title page, seven illustrations tipped-in, 78 illustrations in the text, original dark blue-green cloth, letterd in yellow-green on upper cover, illustration of sailboat on Thames on upper cover (all designed by Bruce Rogers), top edge gilt, preserved in quarter black morocco folding box, minor spotting to endpapers, slight browning

Ford Madox Ford, authorial presentation inscription; Christie's, 7 June 2005, lot 138

Edel & Laurence A62b

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, when appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A VERY FINE ASSOCIATION AND PRESENTATION COPY, linking two of the twentieth-century's major literary figures. James had met the tall, lean Ford Madox Hueffer (later Ford Madox Ford, 1873–1939) as early as 1896, and he later moved into a bungalow at Winchelsea, not that far from James's own residence at Rye. Hueffer was among a "nest of novelists" (Edel) residing within a radius of 25 miles or so of the American authors, others including Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells and even, for a while, Stephen Crane. All of them visited James more or less frequently. After an agoraphobic breakdown in 1904 Hueffer was sent to Germany to be near his family, where he was given a "nerve cure". On returning to England his impressionistic study The Soul of London (1905) and his trilogy England and the English (1907) were published, at around the same time as James's English Hours. Settling in London at 84 Holland Park Avenue he founded and edited the English Review, consolidating "the classic canon of early modernist literature virtually single-handed, publishing established writers like James and Hardy alongside more modern figures such as Conrad, Bennett, and Wells." (Max Saunders, Oxford DNB). The author of A Good Soldier was a great mythologizer of James, claiming to be the model for Merton Densher in The Wings of the Dove.