Books by Alice James
“Alice James was the younger sister of both the novelist Henry James and the psychologist William James. She experienced ill health for most of her life, mostly dismissed as hysteria, before dying at the age of 43 from breast cancer. She began keeping a diary in 1889, when she was already in her 40s and existing in a state of near-constant invalidism. Like Schreber’s Memoirs, her writing is valuable both because it comes from the patient’s perspective, and because it was written in real-time rather than with hindsight. Alice shows us how frustratingly non-linear her condition is; periods of chronic but manageable weakness are punctuated by seemingly random acute attacks that render her bed-bound and, at times, unable to walk.” Read more...
The best books on Hypochondria
Caroline Crampton, Memoirist
“The great genius in the family when it comes to observation and self-observation is not Henry, nor William, but Alice James. You have this lesser-known member of that very literary, very famous family who had turned self-study into a really high art form, one which was only ever captured in her letters and only ever captured privately.” Read more...
The Best Literary Letter Collections
Lucas Zwirner, Artists & Art Critic
Interviews where books by Alice James were recommended
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1
Letters to a Young Painter
by Rainer Maria Rilke -
2
The Death and Letters of Alice James: Selected Correspondence
by Alice James -
3
Letters to Felice
by Franz Kafka -
4
Letters: 1925-1975
by Hannah Arendt & Martin Heidegger -
5
Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence
by Elizabeth Bishop & Robert Lowell
The Best Literary Letter Collections, recommended by Lucas Zwirner
The Best Literary Letter Collections, recommended by Lucas Zwirner
The next release in the ekphrasis series from David Zwirner Books is Oscar Wilde’s The Critic as Artist, including an introduction by Michael Bracewell and a colour portrait of Wilde by Marlene Dumas. Head of Content Lucas Zwirner talks to Five Books about the inspiration he’s drawn from literary letters and how they inform the editorial direction of the publishing house.
The best books on Hypochondria, recommended by Caroline Crampton
Author Caroline Crampton was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma as a teenager. She recovered, but ever since she has suffered from health anxiety—what you might call ‘hypochondria.’ Here, she recommends five of the best books on hypochondria, from memoirs by sufferers to Jane Austen’s final, caustic novel.
