Crane and Henry James
In Henry James and the 'Woman Business' (2004), writer Alfred Habegger accuses Henry James of plagiarizing Crane's novels after her death and rewriting them under his own name. He believes that a scathing anonymous obituary was in fact written by James who had every reason, he contends, to want her forgotten,
"For the unknown writer of this shockingly nasty death notice, Seemüller was a monster of such power and proportions that it was necessary, publicly, to drive a stake through her heart. It was essential that this novelist never rise again.
What better authorization would James have needed for his slightly risky enterprise of appropriating and rewriting Seemüller's novels? She was dead and buried ... It would be a civilized and responsible act to turn her shapeless and immoral narratives into a novel of rounded perfection."
Read more about this topic: Anne Moncure Crane, Biography, Emily Chester
Famous quotes containing the words crane and/or james:
“Instead of seeing society as a collection of clearly defined interest groups, society must be reconceptualized as a complex network of groups of interacting individuals whose membership and communication patterns are seldom confined to one such group alone.”
—Diana Crane (b. 1933)
“In museums and palaces we are alternate radicals and conservatives.”
—Henry James (18431816)