Henry James: Portrait Of A Lady

Even though they worked hard at sanitising the letters, the family still worried that too much had been revealed. A year after the edition appeared Alice wrote to her son Harry: “People are putting a vile interpretation on his silly letters to young men. Poor dear Uncle Henry.” Later, Harry regretted giving permission to EF Benson to publish a volume of James’s letters to him. They included passages such as “Why aren’t you here to take a good Devonshire walk with me? I hang over a green garden and a blue sea from a big balcony… There would be room on the balcony even for your inches or cigarettes, even for Apollo’s lips” or “I am divided between 2 sensations – panting for to-morrow pm and blushing for all the hours of the past days.” ...

Colm Tóibín, The Guardian.

Couldn't happen now, of course.*

* Sarcasm.