Henry James was the son of Henry James, Sr., who wrote on theology, and the younger brother of philosopher William James. Henry James the younger was a regular contributer to U.S.-based periodicals from 1865 onward, though he settled in Europe by 1875, living in London for over 20 years and later at Lamb House in Rye, Sussex.

James wrote reviews, critical essays, a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, prefaces, autobiographical pieces, plays, travel sketches, and short stories. He is best known for his novels that include The American (1877), Portrait of a Lady (1881), and Turn of the Screw (1898), among many others. In 1915 James becamse a British citizen and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1916.

[Information retrieved from "James, Henry," Oxford Companion to English Literature, 7th ed, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, online version accessed 30 March 2020.]

Henry James, born in 1828 in Hereford, England, was the son of surgeon Philip Turner James and Frances Gertrude James. Henry was one of the first to attend Cheltenham College after it opened in 1841 and, after a brief stint as an apprentice to a civil engineer, joined Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1852. James built a lucrative legal career through focusing on commerical cases.

He was also able to build a political career in addition to his legal career. As a Member of Parliament, he frequently supported attempts to introduce the secret ballot and was against women's suffrage and Irish home rule. In the fall and winter of 1873 he was appointed first solicitor general and then attorney general, which led to a knighthood, but did not get to see that appointment to fruitiion when Prime Minister Gladstone lost the election in January 1874. He was again attorney general in 1880 when Gladstone came back as prime minister, and in 1885 he was sworn to the privy council. James' main acts as attorney general were writing the "Corrupt Practices Act" of 1883 and drafting the "Reform Act" of 1884.

James became attorney general for the duchy of Cornwall in 1892, as well as receiving an honorary doctorate of law from Cambridge. In 1895 James finally got a cabinet posting as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, at the same time receiving a seat in the House of Lords as Baron James of Hereford. A lifelong bachelor, the peerage became extinct at his death.

[Information retrieved from Jackson, Patrick, "James, Henry, Baron James of Hereford," in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, published online 23 September 2004.]