James, Alice ___ 1848-1892 ___ American ___ n/a

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Alice was born in New York into a wealthy and well-educated family. She was the youngest of five children, and like her famous brother, Henry, spent some of her youth travelling back and forth from New England to Europe. But, while her brothers attended the best schools wherever they went, Alice was only given a lady's education. In France, for example, she was confined to learning French. As a young girl, during the civil war, she sewed bandages; and, as a young woman, she worked as a history teacher. She was regularly ill, though, and was largely cared for by her parents until they both died in 1882. Thereafter, she tried rest cures, electrical massage and a change of scene in Europe. Through many of the last troubled years of her life, she was supported by Henry. In 1889, when in London, she began writing a diary which she kept up until her death from breast cancer. Henry, apparently, suppressed the diary, and it was not published until 1934. Many years later a more complete version was also published. Irene and Alan Taylor say her diary has become 'a touchstone for feminist analysis of 19th century invalidism and of gender's influence on the family members' lives and careers.'
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Geyser of emotions

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1889-1892 ___ literary social family health society people

WEB TEXT LINKS
good extracts
about and some extracts
about and some extracts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Alice James: Her Brothers, Her Journal
The Diary of Alice James
 

May 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.