We meet several people in our lives, but only a few of them make a significant impact, and it can be anything from your partner to a stranger.
In this article, we will understand the life history and the unexplained death of Edgar Allan Poe’s brother-in-law, James Herring. James wrote books not just about Americans but also about Europeans in America, he was very considerate of literary realism and literary modernism.
James’ work was so distinguishable that whether it is a story letter essay or novel, we can easily categorize them into subgenres. Let’s delve in!
1. Who was Edgar Allan Poe?
Edgar Allan Poe was a magnificent American author, poet, short story writer, critic, and editor. He was a center of romanticism and the fictional writing world of American literature.
1.1 Edgar Allan Poe’s Death
Edgar Allan Poe was a binge drinker and could not deal with alcohol withdrawal which became his death certificate. He used to drink so much whiskey that this habit heavily created brain fever.
Even though, he was suffering from mercury poisoning later and a drug overdose that made his death as hell like midnight dreary.
Michael Benitez was a cardiologist who practiced a block from Poe’s grave and reported Poe’s demise as a contemporary case of rabies.
1.2 Edgar Allan Poe’s Life Works
The feeling of terror invoked in his writings (Gothic literature or literary magazine work) with the exploration of death, suspense, and horror with a touch of romance.
1.3 His Admirations
Allan Poe himself was a great writer but still, admired Charles Dickens on a particular level. He recommended Dickens and his work often to students or other readers.
Matthew Pearl also wrote a book named ‘The Poe Shadow’. Poe wrote such beautiful work pieces which made him one of the successful and admirable writers of the horror genre.
1.4 Poe’s Health
Poe had become like a staggering drunk, his attending physician John Moran stated about his condition that he suffered from ‘the carbon monoxide poisoning that led to a brain tumor’ and that’s why, Poe is not here with us.
1.4.1 His Long-Lasting Suffering
On October 3, 1849, Poe was suffering from a lack of consciousness. He was found in this state at Gunner’s Hall in Baltimore Tavern experiencing paranoia, he died at Washington College Hospital.
Poe’s body lies beneath a monument in the Baltimore Sun or Baltimore City. His physician John Joseph Moran gave the details about the last days’ struggles of Poe.
1.5 Edgar Allan Poe Society and Memoirs
Harry Lee was Poe’s aunt and director of his conferences to take care of them and Poe’s body. There are even pretty number of sites that are devoted to Edgar Allan Poe’s life and his achievements.
1.5.1 Memoirs
We can still get in touch with Poe and his memorable times at the Poe Museum located in Richmond, he left Richmond later and Poe’s death moments are compiled into his remains.
1.5.2 Society
Poe died while leaving the public house of the Edgar Allan Poe Society thinking about the way of life, the portrait of the fiancee of Poe, Sarah Elmira Shelton, is very famous.
2. Relationship between Edgar Allan Poe and Henry James Herring
Henry James Herring was married to the sister of Edgar Allan Poe, Rosalie Poe and that’s why, Henry James was the brother-in-law of Allan Poe, and both of them were amazingly amazing in their writing work.
2.1 Biographies of Allan Poe
Henry was very reliable in Edgar Allan Poe’s work, he kept reviving Poe’s legacy through his biographical writing work even after the very mysterious death of Edgar Poe.
2.1.1 James Herring
He wrote the biography of Poe, “The Life of Edgar Allan Poe” to sustain the sensitization in the writing world through the life aspects of Poe.
2.1.2 Arthur Hobson Quinn
Arthur Hobson Quinn wrote the biography of Poe.
2.1.3 Author John Evangelist
Walsh also wrote a book named “Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe” to talk about the life history of Poe.
2.1.4 Gerald Kennedy
He was a historical guide to Poe and Kennedy wrote “Poe, Death, and The Life of Writing”.
3. Why Henry James is so Famous?
James has provided very wonderful critics and literary writing work for American writers. Today’s modern novelists also get inspired by those works and do good assessments about themselves.
Henry James Herring (15th April 1843 – 28th February 1916) was one of the greatest novelists and biographers in the English language. He started writing in his earlier life period along with traveling because of the influence of his father and brother.
3.1 His Biography and Family Overview
Henry James Herring was born on 15th April 1843 in New York City, his father was Henry James Sr. who was a social theorist and lecturer.
Henry James was born in New York City but spent his teen time in England where he learned languages and wrote his earlier writings.
3.1.1 Father’s Influence
His father used to write essays that were based upon aspects and philosophy regarding contemporary religion to give strength to different minds.
Henry James could hear his father converse with popular personalities and that’s how he learned the broad possible outlook of the surroundings.
3.1.2 Belief on Father
To promote and stimulate the ideas, his father took the whole family to Europe, then Switzerland, France, Germany, and then again to Europe.
Henry James Jr. liked Europe so much that he started thinking about living in Europe forever, he continued his studies and worked only in Europe itself.
3.1.3 The Migration
In Boston, the whole family was there to settle and Henry James went to Harvard Law School. Because of his interest in writing, he withdrew from the school and started trying to get his works published.
In the late 1860s, James sold his one work to ‘The Atlantic Monthly’. He tried to put himself up in the US in the hope of writing better and earning better, but finally, in 1876, James decided to stay near England and continued his writing work there.
3.2 His Contributions to the World
The editor of the Atlantic Monthly and friend of James, William Dean Howells along with him, inaugurated the era of realism. His first story was published in the New York Continental Monthly with no mention of his name.
3.2.1 His Way of Reach to the Generation
James wrote novels too but before that, he was preparing himself through short stories, critics, and article writing. He would tell-tale stories and rather, write about the life of the mind than of action.
James tried to show the importance of individual consciousness to understand the events happening in documentary life through his books. He taught his future generation that keep in mind the aspects of society to enhance writing.
3.3 The Collection of His Important Literary Sources
Henry James was a versatile kind of writer. In the works, he assembled Europe (Old World) and America (New World) in such a way that corruption, serenity, and modern assertiveness could amalgamate well.
James explored the clash of personalities and cultures of different worlds through his exciting characters created in the books.
3.3.1 Novels
• Essential Ones:-
The Portrait of a Lady- 1881
Based upon the contradictory ideas existing between Europe and America. It was James’s first attempt at a full-length novel that caught the eyes of many people, this book was a combination of extremely imaginative art and mentoring.
The Golden Bowl– 1904
Maggie’s best friend is sleeping with her husband whereas she was married to her rich widowed father without any question arising. It’s a tough one because even the characters are confused about each other.
• Popular Ones:-
The Ambassadors– 1903
It is an amazing novel that even James himself was into it very much. This book is based upon James’ experience in Paris about realizing the morals and practices, he has been following.
What Maisie Knew– 1897
It is more timely than ever while being puzzled, it contains the story and description of a child custody case to enlighten the world.
The Aspern Papers– 1888
This book is about a story of many lies, betrayals, secrets and treachery.
• Last but Not Least Ones:-
Washington Square– 1880
This short novel tells about the place north of 14th Street in New York City where James was born.
The Bostonians– 1886
This novel is about a Boston Marriage regarding a domestic partnership of two educated women, it tries to show the endurance of the strength to treat the gender roles in post-civil War America.
Daisy Miller– 1878
It is the story of a well-dressed American girl who was roaming around Europe and doing adventures. But bad manners killed her and of course, they were not her own.
3.3.2 Short Stories
The dramatization of ‘The American’ of James’ was performed as a play for several years by a touring repertory company with respectable reach in London. But after that, for some time, no other dramatization of his novels was there.
3.3.3 Non-Fictional Area
Besides the fictional books, James is very famous for his non-fictional works or essays. One of those is ‘The Art of Fiction (1884)’ in which he tried to maintain the freedom of content to ensure the narrative’s fictional vitality.
3.4 Why did James Herring Like Europe so much?
James was on the way to his success towards becoming an excellent writer in Europe, his popularity called him to Paris as a correspondent.
James was writing ‘The American,’ the story of a hero, Christopher Newman tries to put his ideas and views against the old work of models and codes. He also attended the French theatres regularly and got to know some of the major Parisian writers.
3.4.1 James’ Writing Phase in London
Henry James Herring settled in Mayfair after completing the last chapter of ‘The American’ and stayed until 1886. He stayed in London in 1877’s autumn and continued his writing works like travel literature and fictional stories.
James became a reputed writer because of ‘Daisy Miller’, and that year became a lucky one for his most popular fictional works. After that, he continued to write and publish with the hope of building up his era of writing for sustainability.
3.4.2 Friendship
An English publisher, Macmillan published the volume of James’s work ‘French Poets and Novelists’ in 1878.
This created a friendship bond between both of them that did not last long in an associative manner. A poet, Marguerite St Leon Loud gave theatrical presentations for James’ work.
3.4.3 The Portrait of a Lady
James made himself busy writing his long and ambitious novel, the Portrait of a Lady. This is a fantastic novel even at present, and tells a soothing along making the story dark.
It was about the detective story of a generous and impulsive American girl, Isabel Archer, who had to marry a patriarchal hunter to get her money rights.
3.4.4 James’ Ups and Downs
When James was going through the treatment process in Paris for around 3 months in February 1880. He wrote Washington Square which is an American variation of a painful domestic tragedy set in New York, in his birth city.
By 1895, James had again started fiction writing because of the ups and downs that affected his non-fiction work.
4. Unexplained Death of James Herring
From 1896 to 1900, James published 22 short stories. The years 1901-1910 saw a mere 15 more, partly because James was also busy writing novels and biographies, he was struggling to get his works published.
While living in Europe, whether it is his critics or reviews or short stories or novels, Europe was lucky for him and it was special. That’s why, he had made Britain his land even at the time of leaving the world.
4.1 Henry James’ Sufferings
Henry James Herring had been suffering from a nervous disorder since 1909. That poor soul was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning to discover his unmarked grave leaving the marks of a dreary mysterious death.
4.1.1 James’ Beloved Brother’s Death
The brother of James, William James was also sick & that is why, his wife, Alice came to visit both of them. She took care of them while visiting a summer vacation at Lamb House in 1910 to make them feel good and get well soon.
They returned to America but the brother could not survive anymore and died in New Hampshire, in August 1910. Henry James remained in the memory of his brother’s loss and tried not to leave America.
4.2 The Silence
The start of World War I was not a silent phase for James. He compelled himself to write about the contemporary issues and their consequences that were prevalent at the time of war.
James could not continue his novel named The Ivory Tower. He got back to write a long thoughtful and referred novel ‘The Sense of the Past’ which was left incomplete around 15 years earlier.
4.3 Leaving The World
In December 1915, James suffered from a paralytic stroke and his brother’s wife, Alice, crossed the Atlantic Ocean to stay with him until the end. He approved the palace-renovation orders and signed them.
And, after that, his time came up to leave the world because now suffering had to stop. On 28 February 1916, Henry James died due to pneumonia and sickness.
4.3.1 James’ Fame
The city of Baltimore tavern was special for James. In Henry James Memorial School, youngsters vote multiple times to show the power of evolution. Everyone still talks about fourth-ward polling places without having voter fraud.
4.4 Summarization of The Last Time
We can summarize Henry James Herring’s mysterious death event with an analysis of our aspects, he struggled so much that even the world has been remembering that legend since then.
4.4.1 World War 1 Impact on James
When World War I started the protest for neutrality was going on and Henry James was suffering from pneumonia. He thought it would be appropriate to leave that US citizenship after observing the world war issues.
When the US was about to enter World War 1, Henry James lost his last breath when he was 72 years old due to a lack of specific treatment for a critical disease like pneumonia. Thus, on 28th Feb 1916, he left the world in Great Britain.
4.4.2 Loss for The Society
James’ funeral service was held in Chelsea Old Church, London, and his ashes were deposited with Poe’s remains in the family plots in Massachusetts.
We lost a great American author who made English literature so alive. And even after so long, his novels are unstoppable in explaining the aspects of writing, reading, and thinking for all of us.
5. The Teachings and Morals of Henry James Herring
Henry James did not get a formal education in writing, He saw his father and brother working actively in writing as well as spreading positivity for surrounding issues.
James also started writing to get the audience to catch their thoughts whether they were assertive or critical. He helped modern novelists and writers to reach the zenith of success in every genre of writing.
5.1 James’ Teachings and Beliefs
James wrote 20 novels, 112 tales, and 12 plays along with other reviews, essays, and critical works. So here are a few teachings that he wanted the writers to pursue for a liberal writing work.
5.1.1 Performance-based
He tried to explain how the characters show excitement about negotiating your desire for knowledge and terror.
5.1.2 Orientation based
He provided a way to reach the consequences of the contrast between literary realism and literary modernism.
5.1.3 Belief based
He strongly believed that “art lives upon discussion” to show the power of discussion to meet the regulatory balancing point among contradictory thoughts.
5.1.4 Result based
He also tried to explain the importance of characters that are personified by the qualities of goodness, evil, virtue, and mankind’s sayings.
Final Words
As rightly said, even if the stars are not shining in the sky, they leave the impression of their work in such a way that the appreciation brings them to us.
The lack of such legends is never fulfilled, losing them is a big loss for the whole society. And James Herring will always be remembered for his tremendous work which touched the hearts of millions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1 How James Herring was related to Edgar Allan Poe?
Henry James Herring was married to the sister of Edgar Allan Poe, Rosalie Poe. Thus, Henry James was the brother-in-law of Allan Poe.
Q2 What were the popular writing works of Henry James Herring?
James’ most popular works include novels and a few short stories like The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, and The Ambassadors.
Q3 What was James’ family background?
James’ father James Sr. was one of the intellectual leaders, a banker, and an investor too.
His mother Mary was from a rich family and belonged to the favourite city of James, New York City and his big brother was an excellent philosopher and psychologist who also died because of a nervous system illness.
Q4 How did James influence the world of writing?
James Herring gave a new twist to the writing world so that the modern generation can succeed in writing. So that, everyone could observe the different liberal and extreme aspects together by neutralization.
Last Updated on by Gourvi Gupta