Andy Hoffman's note that "If a group of interested parties somehow managed
to reclaim Mark Twain's image from commercialism, the result would in time
reduce Twain to the same cultural influence as Howells or James: important
to
readers and scholars, but not iconic to Americans as a whole" could use some
sharpening as far as James is concerned.  Nevertheless, Andy's overall
point holds.

Henry James's image was used, like Twain's, to sell cigars.  There
was an apartment house in New York named the "Henry James."  Barnes and
Noble uses James's image to sell books, Banana Republic to sell clothes,
Rolls Royce to sell cars.  Over 100 films have been made following James's
fiction.
Stage productions and operas too follow from his work.  Commercial
elements must have comprised at least part of the calculation for each
production.

In addition, many of us use our versions of Clemens or James or Howells,
for that matter, as a part of our jobs, which, in turn, are a part of the
commercial enterprises of our institutions and/or publishers.  Though it's
not the first thing we have in mind, who among us would not be satisfied
if a monograph produced healthy royalty checks?

Greg W. Zacharias
Creighton University