Benjamin Falk (New York, 1853 - 1925)
Paul Bourget, about 1890
Albumen print, 16.8 x 10.8 cm (6 5/8 x 4 1/4 in.)
Vatichino
Commentary
Author Paul Bourget met both Isabella Stewart Gardner and Henry James on separate occasions in 1884, the year after he published his first book of literary criticism. James was ambivalent about Bourget’s work, yet he encouraged the younger writer’s relationship with Gardner. When Bourget and his wife, Minnie, traveled to Boston in 1893, James wrote a letter of re-introduction to Gardner on behalf of “my distinguished & charming friends.”