Unhappy at whiteness of beard which he has worn since the Civil War, he shaves it off. Alternates between Rye and London. Begins The Sacred Fount. Works on and then sets aside The Sense of the Past (never finished). Begins The Ambassadors. The Soft Side, a collection of twelve tales, published. Niece Peggy comes to Lamb House for Christmas.

1901

Obtains permanent room at the Reform Club for London visits and spends eight weeks in town. Sees funeral of Queen Victoria. Decides to employ a typist, Mary Weld, to replace the more expensive overqualified shorthand stenographer, MacAlpine. Completes The Ambassadors and begins The Wings of the Dove. The Sacred Fount published. Has meeting with George Gissing. William James, much improved, returns home after two years in Europe. Young Cambridge admirer Percy Lubbock visits. Discharges his alcoholic servants of sixteen years (the Smiths). Mrs. Paddington becomes new housekeeper.

1902

In London for the winter but gout and stomach disorder force him home earlier. Finishes The Wings of the Dove (published in August). William James Jr. (Billy) visits in October and becomes a favorite nephew. Writes “The Beast in the Jungle” and “The Birthplace.”

1903

The Ambassadors, The Better Sort (a collection of eleven tales), and William Wetmore Story and His Friends published. After another spell in town, returns to Lamb House in May and begins work on The Golden Bowl. Meets and establishes close friendship with Dudley Jocelyn Persse, a nephew of Lady Gregory. First meeting with Edith Wharton in December.

1904–5

Completes The Golden Bowl (published Nov. 1904). Rents out Lamb House for six months, and sails in August for America after twenty-year absence. Sees new Manhattan skyline from New Jersey on arrival and stays with Colonel George Harvey, president of Harper’s, in Jersey shore house with Mark Twain as fellow guest. Goes to William’s country house at Chocorua in the White Mountains, New Hampshire. Reexplores Cambridge, Boston, Salem, Newport, and Concord, where he visits brother Bob. In October stays with Edith Wharton in the Berkshires and motors with her through Massachusetts and New York. Later visits New York City, Philadelphia (where he delivers lecture “The Lesson of Balzac”), and then Washington, D.C., as a guest in Henry Adams’s house. Meets (and is critical of) President Theodore Roosevelt. Returns to Philadelphia to lecture at Bryn Mawr. Travels to Richmond, Charleston, Jacksonville, Palm Beach, and St. Augustine. Then lectures in St. Louis, Chicago, South Bend, Indianapolis, Los Angeles (with a short vacation at Coronado Beach near San Diego), San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. Returns to explore New York City (“the terrible town”), May–June. Lectures on “The Question of Our Speech” at Bryn Mawr commencement. Elected to newly founded American Academy of Arts and Letters (William declines). Returns to England in July; lectures had more than covered expenses of his trip. Begins revision of novels for the New York Edition.

1906–8