James

toward the English-American novel, which he
found a largely unconscious and which he left a
fully conscious form of art. There had been, of
course, many excellent novels before him, but he
more than any other writer, both by his narra-
tives and in his criticisms, called attention to
the finer details of craftsmanship, generalized
individual practices into principles, and brought
the whole art into the region of esthetics. His
influence upon numerous followers, in Europe
and in America, has been weighty and persistent.
As historian he runs the risk of losing his credi-
bility with the passing of the delicate codes by
which the manners of his own age were regu-
lated; but as an artist he must long be highly
regarded for his invaluable services to a form of
literature which shows no sign of declining from
the eminence which he helped to give it.

[There is no extended or authoritative biography of
Henry James. The Letters of Henry James (2 vols.,
1920) are the principal source of information, along
with the autobiographical works listed above: A Small
Boy and Others (1913), Notes of a Son and Brother
(1914), The Middle Years (1917)—which last work is
not to be confused with the short story by the same
title. Further information may be found in The Letters
of Wm. James (1920), Letters of Chas. Eliot Norton
(1913), and The Letters of Rolt. Louis Stevenson
(1899) ; in the Life in Letters (1928) of Wm. Dean
Howells; and in Memories <$• Notes of Persons &
Places^ (1921) by Sidney Colvin. The following bio-
graphical or critical studies may also be consulted: The
Method of Henry James (1918) by Jos. Warren Beach;
The Pilgrimage of Henry James (1925) by Van Wyck
Brooks; The Novels of Henry James (1905) by Elisa-
beth Luther Gary; Henry James: Man and Author
(1927) by Pelham Edgar; Henry James et la France.
(1927) by Marie-Reine Gamier; Henry James: A Crit-
ical Study (1915) by Ford Madox Hueffer; Theory and
Practice in Henry James (1926) by Herbert Leland
Hughes; The Early Development of Henry James
(1930) by C. P. Kelley; Henry James (1916) by Re-
becca West. The Cambridge Hist, of Am. Lit. (1917-
21), IV, 671-75, contains a careful bibliography of the
writings by and about James but this brings the ac-
count down only to 1921, since when there have ap-
peared several volumes of his early stories and nu-
merous briefer discussions and memoirs.] c.V__p.

JAMES, JESSE WOODSON (Sept. 5,1847-
Apr. 3,1882), desperado, was born near Kearney
(then Centerville), Clay County, Mo., the son
of Robert and Zerelda (Cole) James. The par-
ents were Kentuckians who moved to Missouri
shortly after their marriage. The mother was a
Catholic and the father a Baptist minister who
supported his family mainly by fanning. About
1851 the father went to California, where short-
ly after his arrival he died. The widow remar-
ried, but soon divorced her husband, and in 1857
married Dr. Reuben Samuels, a fanner and phy-
sician. Jesse and his brother Alexander Frank-
lin (Jan. 10, i843-Feb. 18, 1915) were reared
as farm boys and though trained in religious doc-
trine and observance received little education.
Both were known as good boys. The mother and

James

step-father were openly Southern in their sym-
pathies, and during the Civil War their home
was twice raided by Federal militia. Both boys
became Confederate guerrillas under the leader-
ship of William Clarke Quantrill [q.v.]. For
perhaps a year after the close of the war, while
Jesse was recovering from a severe wound, they
seem to have been law-abiding. In 1866, with
Coleman Younger [q.v.~] and others, they formed
a band of brigands, of which Jesse was usually
regarded as the leader, and which in its various
transformations continued its activities for more
than fifteen years. At first it specialized in bank
robberies, but on July 21, 1873, initiated a novel
enterprise by holding up and robbing a train on
the Rock Island railroad at Adair, Iowa.

For the first ten years the operations of the
band were uniformly successful. The attempted
robbery of the bank at Northfield, Minn., Sept.
7, 1876, proved, however, a supreme disaster.
Of the eight bandits engaged, three were killed,
three (Coleman, Robert, and James Younger)
were shot down and captured, and only Jesse
and Frank James escaped. For more than three
years thereafter the brothers were in retire-
ment. In 1879, with a new following, they
robbed a train and in 1881 tw'o trains. The elec-
tion in 1880 of William H. Wallace as prosecut-
ting attorney of Jackson County, Mo., on a plat-
form demanding the arrest of the outlaws, marked
a change in the local sentiment that had pro-
tected them and the beginning of a relentless
prosecution. Three of the company were ar-
rested and convicted; another, after killing one
of his fellows, gave himself up; and another was
killed by Jesse James on suspicion that he was
unfaithful. In the spring of 1882 Jesse, who for
about six months had been living in St. Joseph,
Mo., as Thomas Howard, was treacherously shot
in the back of the head by a member of his band,
Robert Ford, and almost instantly killed. Six
months later Frank James surrendered. He was
twice brought to trial and each time acquitted.
His later life was in all respects honorable.

Jesse James was married, Apr. 24, 1874, to
his cousin, Zerelda Mimms, by whom he had a
son and a daughter. He was of medium height,
of slender but solid build, with a bearded, narrow
face, and prominent blue eyes. Till his later
days, when he became abnormally suspicious and
moody, he was good-natured and jocular, though
quick-tempered. He always justified his out-
lawry on the alleged ground that he had been
driven into it by persecution. In 1868 he joined
the Baptist Church, and to the end of his life he
was a devout believer in the Christian religion.

[Robertus Love, The Rise and Fall of Jesse James
(1926); Jesse E. James, Jesse James, My Father

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