Biographical context and composition
By the 1890s, James' readership had dwindled since the success of Daisy Miller (1878), and he had encountered financial troubles. His health had also worsened, with advancing gout,[15] and several of his close friends had died: his sister and diarist Alice James, and writers Robert Louis Stevenson and Constance Fenimore Woolson.[16] In a letter from October 1895, James wrote: "I see ghosts everywhere".[17] In an entry in his journal from January 12, 1895, James recounts a ghost story told to him by Edward White Benson, the archbishop of Canterbury, while visiting him for tea at his home two days earlier. The story bears a striking resemblance to what would eventually become The Turn of the Screw, with depraved servants corrupting young children before and after their deaths.[18]
Towards the end of 1897, James was contracted to write a twelve-part ghost story for Collier's Weekly, an illustrated magazine. Having just signed a twenty-one year lease on a house in Rye, East Sussex, James —thankful for the additional income—accepted the offer.[19][20] Collier's Weekly paid James US$900 (equivalent to US$27,659 in 2019) for the serial rights.[21] A year earlier, in 1897, The Chap-Book paid him US$150 (equivalent to US$4,610 in 2019) for serial and book rights to What Maisie Knew.[22]
James found it difficult to write by hand,[23] reserving that for his journals. The Turn of the Screw was dictated to his secretary, William MacAlpine, who took shorthand notes and returned with typed notes the following day. Finding such a delay frustrating, James purchased his own Remington typewriter and dictated directly to MacAlphine.[24][25] In December 1897, James wrote to his sister-in-law: "I have, at last, finished my little book."[26]
Publication and later revisions
The Turn of the Screw was first published in the magazine Collier's Weekly, serialised in 12 installments (27 January – 16 April 1898). The title illustration by John La Farge depicts the governess with her arm around Miles. Episode illustrations were by Eric Pape.[27]
- "The next night, by the corner of the hearth, in the best chair … Douglas began to read"
- "He did stand there!—But high up, beyond the lawn and at the very top of the tower"
- "Holding my candle high, till I came within sight of the tall window"
- "He presently produced something that made me drop straight down on the stone slab"
- "I must have thrown myself, on my face, on the ground"
In October 1898, the novella appeared with the short story "Covering End" in a volume titled The Two Magics, published by Macmillan in New York City and by Heinemann in London.[28]
Ten years after publication, James revised The Turn of the Screw for the New York Edition of the text.[29] James made many changes, but most were minor, such as changing "utter" to "express"; the narrative was unchanged. The New York Edition's most important contribution was the retrospective account of the influences and writing of the novella James gave in his preface. James indicated, for example, that he was aware of research into the supernatural.[30] In his preface, James only briefly mentions the story's origin in a magazine. In 2016, Kirsten MacLeod, citing James' private correspondence, indicated that he had a strong dislike for the serial form.[31]
