James McNeill Whistler was an American-born painter and etcher. He wrote more than 5000 letters which, with his published writing and conversations, illuminate his work and his contentious relations with the art world of the time. This book includes 75 items: letters (many unpublished before) and material recording his disillusion with English approaches to art and his response to the French, Scottish and American art worlds. Whistler was a friend of the Pre-Raphaelites and a enjoyed a fruitful dialogue with Swinburne and with Wilde (whom he later accused of plagiarism) and emerged at the centre of the Aesthetic Movement. Against Ruskin (who attacked him) he won a libel suit and a farthing's damages. The trial sharpened Whistler's polemical gifts and he wrote stinging pamphlets and letters to the press.