Author: William James
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Author: Robert D. Richardson
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547526733
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 638

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Book Description
The definitive biography of the fascinating William James, whose life and writing put an indelible stamp on psychology, philosophy, teaching, and religion—on modernism itself. Often cited as the “father of American psychology,” William James was an intellectual luminary who made significant contributions to at least five fields: psychology, philosophy, religious studies, teaching, and literature. A member of one of the most unusual and notable of American families, James struggled to achieve greatness amid the brilliance of his theologian father; his brother, the novelist Henry James; and his sister, Alice James. After studying medicine, he ultimately realized that his true interests lay in philosophy and psychology, a choice that guided his storied career at Harvard, where he taught some of America’s greatest minds. But it is James’s contributions to intellectual study that reveal the true complexity of man. In this biography that seeks to understand James’s life through his work—including Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience, and Pragmatism—Robert D. Richardson has crafted an exceptionally insightful work that explores the mind of a genius, resulting in “a gripping and often inspiring story of intellectual and spiritual adventure” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “A magnificent biography.” —The Washington Post

Author: George Cotkin
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252063923
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
"Cotkin provides a gracefully written and consistently intelligent defense of James and pragmatism that deserves a wide audience among intellectual historians and their students."--Robert C. Bannister, American Historical Review.

Author: Marilyn M. Sachs
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739181637
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
For a century now, scholars have searched for the “source” of Marcel Proust’s startlingly innovative novel À la recherche du temps perdu. Some have pointed to Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, or Paul Sollier. Others have referenced the novels of Henry James. But no one has focused on the more significant influence of the writings of Henry’s older brother, the psychologist and Harvard professor William James. A close comparison reveals the degree to which Proust’s novel stems from James’s psychological and philosophical theories. William James was a prominent member of the scientific, medical and philosophical communities in Proust’s Paris and was close friends with two men well known to Proust. His works were translated into French and reviewed in French journals and newspapers. This book discloses how Proust likely became familiar with William James and illustrates how James’s writings were key to Proust’s ability to craft the book he had been trying to write, extending even to his use of similar language and imagery and a narrative schema that arguably mimics James’s descriptions of consciousness, perception, and memory. Proust’s hero assiduously explores the vague, uncertain, relational aspects of experience, the trials and comforts of habit, the salvational potential of memory, the “moral” aspects of personal history teeming with impression and desire—these are the truths of human psychology and behavior theorized by William James and made fictional flesh in Proust’s rendition of lived experience.

Author: Ermine L. Algaier
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498552919
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
While a reconstruction of the whole of William James’s personal library isn’t feasible, there are significant portions of it that reside within the Harvard University Library system and this book is a partial reconstruction of their story. Reconstructing the Personal Library of William James offers a new, comprehensive account of the James collection at Harvard University, bringing together all known Harvard-owned entries into one comprehensive volume. The annotated bibliography contains data on 2,554 entries (2,862 volumes) from James’s personal library, including both the 1923 “Philosophical Library” and all known additional donations by James and his family. . Each entry, when applicable, contains the following data points: Harvard Library location and call number, provenance, bookplate, accession record, autographs, inscriptions, ownership marks, indexical annotations, markings, and marginalia. To orient the reader, Ermine L. Algaier IV supplements the bibliography with essays that examine the history of the James’s library at Harvard, assess the size of the collection and how it came to reside at Harvard, and showcase patterns that emerge from looking at the collection as a whole. Additional essays are devoted to explaining the source lists and archival resources used in reconstructing James’s personal library, as well as outlining steps for continued research on the collection.

Author: Howard M. Feinstein
Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press/Cornell University Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Jointly published by Plunkett Lake Press and Cornell University Press. “In the early years of my psychotherapeutic practice, I was struck by the pervasive uncertainty that many of my patients, both young and not so young, felt about their work lives. I soon became dissatisfied with constructions that depended solely on internal conflict for an explanation when there was so obviously a cultural and historical dimension to the problem... I decided to embark on a more extended study of the James family... I found the Jameses to be vivid personalities with a gift for self scrutiny and an enviable habit of weekly letter writing and letter saving that spans American history from the close of the American Revolution to the end of the first World War. They could, I thought, be looked upon as an avant garde with characteristics that are commonplace now but were unusual then. They were urban and educated, with sufficient means to have genuine choices. Hoping to discover the historical and cultural context for what I heard and saw in my consultation room, I set out to harvest the James family experience.” — Howard M. Feinstein, Introduction to the 1999 edition of Becoming William James Becoming William James was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1985. “Howard Feinstein has written a brilliant study of William’s crises over idleness, illness, and vocation within the context of intense parental and sibling entanglement.” — London Review of Books “Dr. Feinstein’s book is certainly a success. He has offered us a rich new vocabulary with which to describe William James.” — Willard Gaylin, The New York Times “Howard M. Feinstein, a psychiatrist and historian, has finally given us a life study equal in richness to James himself... a superb developmental biography.” — Dorothy Ross, The American Historical Review “Becoming William James is a work of painstaking scholarship, written in an engaging and energetic style... Feinstein is also to be commended for a playful sense of irony, which prevents this psychobiographical study from degenerating, as others have, into a series of diagnostic vignettes... [an] excellent study.” — Brian Mahan, The Journal of Religion “The best and truest thing one could say about the richly provocative Becoming William James is that William, while perhaps raising an eyebrow here and there, would have welcomed it and praised it lavishly.” — Times Literary Supplement “[Feinstein] offers us much new or reevaluated information about James and his family. In particular, he offers a series of challenges to the received views of James’s life: the nature of his relationship with his father and brother Henry, the causes of his abandonment of a career as a painter, the etiology of his various crises...” — James Campbell, CrossCurrents “Feinstein’s volume presents a finely nuanced reading of the internal Sturm und Drang of William James’s early years; he places center stage the familial conflicts over vocation... Feinstein’s deep penetration into the documentary sources of the James family history unearths many new insights and facts...” — George Cotkin, American Quarterly “[A] solidly documented, steadily perceptive, and long overdue biography... Feinstein’s thesis is strong in its outline, rich in its detail… [Feinstein] sheds penetrating light into the darker regions of one of America’s great families.” — Kirkus “Since its first publication in 1984, the book has been highly praised for its imaginative yet painstaking exploration of the parent-child and sibling relationships of one of America’s most complexly gifted families.” — Marcus Cunliffe, American Studies International “Becoming William James does much to restore the intellectual respectability of psychoanalytic history. Written by a historian and psychiatrist with a sensitivity to the nuances and rich subtlety of emotional phenomena, the book depicts the early turmoils and ultimate triumphs of one of America’s great philosophers. And it does so without succumbing to the crude reductionism that plagues psychohistory in the hands of amateur psychologists... a solid achievement. The writing is vivid and well-paced, the research is thorough.” — John Patrick Diggins, Reviews in American History “Becoming William James is a psychobiography of James that covers the early part of his life. James begs for this sort of treatment... Feinstein is well equipped to undertake such a biography. He is professionally qualified as a psychiatrist but is also an indefatigable researcher and industrious historian... possibly the finest work yet to appear in the genre of psychohistory... On every page the author’s intelligence is at work.” — Bruce Kuklick, American Journal of Education “Howard M. Feinstein has written a remarkable biography of William James that narrates the course of his character development up to the year he was formally appointed to Harvard’s Philosophy Department as an Assistant Professor in 1880. Feinstein’s work is revisionary in the best sense... Feinstein argues persistently and persuasively that intergenerational battles between father and son — cultural variants to be sure — accounted more than anything else for William James’s personal and professional development which, indeed, were one and the same.” — Henry Samuel Levinson, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society “A well-focused theme and inventive but rigorous scholarship mean that Howard M. Feinstein’s study of the first three decades in the life of William James is timely and valuable.” — Steven Weiland, The Journal of American History “Feinstein’s chronicle is absorbing.” — Lawrence Willson, The Sewanee Review “This absorbing study of the intergenerational effects one famous family had upon its individual members remains invaluable” — Seana Graham, Simply Charly

Author: Ruth Anna Putnam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521459068
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
The most convenient and accessible guide to James currently available.

Author: Jeffery W Vail
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000743691
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 857

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Book Description
Thomas Moore was one of the most prominent authors of the early 19th century. This collection presents over 600 previously unpublished letters from numerous libraries, archives and other sources worldwide. Vail's extensively-annotated edition will make available a treasure trove of material which will prove invaluable to any Romantic scholar.

Author: Henry James
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813922706
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The two men met on only six occasions, and never for more than a few days, so their friendship was almost entirely epistolary. The letters assembled here, nearly half of which are previously unpublished, exhibit a voice decidedly more vulnerable than that which we usually associate with James. They also shed new light on the writer's homoerotic leanings, as he approaches Andersen with a passion, as well as a tenderness, typically reserved for a lover.

Author: Ignas K. Skrupskelis
Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA
ISBN:
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description