Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Autograph letter signed : Venice, to Dr. Baldwin, [1894 Apr. 3].

BIB_ID
397084
Accession number
MA 8732.42
Creator
James, Henry, 1843-1916.
Display Date
[1894 Apr. 3].
Credit line
Gift of Mrs. Arthur Bliss Lane and Mrs. Stanley B. Hawks, 1968.
Description
1 item (6 pages) ; 17.6 x 11.2 cm + envelope
Notes
Part of a collection of letters from Henry James to Dr. William W. Baldwin between 1887 and 1900 (MA 8732.1-75). This collection is part of a much larger collection of letters to Dr. Baldwin from authors, English royalty and other luminaries of the period, including Samuel Clemens, William Dean Howells, Sarah Orne Jewett, Henry Cabot Lodge, Booth Tarkington, Edith Wharton and Constance Fenimore Woolson. See MA 3564 for more information on the complete Baldwin collection.
Written on stationery embossed "34, De Vere Gardens W." and dated "Tuesday". James has crossed through the London address and written above it "Casa Biondetti / San Vio 715, Venice." The date of writing from the postmark.
Provenance
Gift of Mrs. Arthur Bliss Lane and Mrs. Stanley B. Hawks, 1968.
Summary
Concerning his arrival in Venice; saying "I came here two days ago - having promised poor Mrs. Benedict & her daughter to be here to receive them. If they stop in Florence to see you, as I much hope you will hear from them that I met them at Genoa on the 29th & saw them on their way to Rome. They are of course dreadfully depressed, but I found them more tranquil - easier - than I feared. I have taken an appartamentino here because it settles me more comfortably & gives me room & quiet to work (a matter with which I am much pressed) & I hate the horrible hotels. My idea is to keep the rooms (they are excellent - & the same C.F.W. had last summer - before she went to Casa Simitecolo) all the while I am in Italy - which I hope will be for the next 3 months...& make them a base of operations for an absence or two - especially for coming to see you - which, for a short time, I shall be delighted to do...My present stay here is a quantity that must remain vague to me till after the Benedicts have come. I feel pledged to be here as long as they are & then I must perhaps stay on a while for my immediate work. Venice is bright & fine, but too cold - & I am disappointed in the quantity of warmth & of Spring that I find in Italy. But it will come. Be better, my dear Baldwin - or at any rate be as well as you can."