No question his place in American letters is secure. His first novel, The Portrait of a Lady, still one of his best, was written in 1876, known as his early phase; his last, Wings of the Dove, written in 1915, was known as his late phase. Strangely Ezra Pound, one of the first modernists who had met him in London society, worshipped him.

When The Portrait of a Lady came out in a second edition, James rewrote some sensual scenes to take advantage of relaxed (although still Victorian) obscenity standards at the time of the second edition release, fifteen years later.