"The James Family" provides an essential resource for literature enthusiasts and intellectual historians, back in print for the first time in forty years. Renowned literary scholar F.O. Matthiessen, considered the founder of the discipline of American Studies, brings together a carefully crafted biography of the extraordinary family and a generous and critical selection from its writings. Through letters, notebooks, essays and reviews, Matthiessen embeds in his astute portrait of the family their own voices and views on issues close to their hearts. Among these documents, the James' touch on nearly every major issue in American intellectual history, culture, philosophy, art, and society. It is a must-have for libraries, literature enthusiasts, James fans, and intellectual historians: an enduring work of American cultural history.