Henry James (1843-1916) was an American-British author and is considered one of the finest novelists of the late-19th and early 20th centuries. His books "Portrait of a Lady," "The Golden Bowl," "The Turn of the Screw," "The Bostonians" and "Daisy Miller" are considered some of the finest novels ever written. Born to an enormously wealthy family in New York, James received a first-rate education and developed an early obsession with literature. Rejecting a career in the law, James instead pursued writing, first writing for magazines and then eventually graduating to novels, publishing "The American" in 1877. When "Daisy Miller" became a bestseller in 1878, James followed it up with "Portrait of a Lady," which many consider his first true masterpiece. His travels brought him into contact with the finest writers of the age, including Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Emile Zola, Ivan Turgenev and Robert Louis Stevenson, among many others. His works often explored the culture class between the old-money, established societies of Europe and the brash, assertive, freedom-loving American "New World" socialites. A dazzlingly prolific writer, James was not limited to short stories, novellas and full-length books; he also produced a number of plays, books of literary criticism and articles on travel and the visual arts. One of the most revered novelists of the late 19th century, James died in London in 1916 at the age of seventy-two.