Barzun, Jacques. A Stroll with William James. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.

Abstract

To Whitehead, he was "that adorable genius, William James"; to John Jay Chapman, himself a genius of no mean order, James was "simply the only man [in America] who wasn't terrified at ideas, moonstruck at a living thought, but alive himself." To Gertrude Stein, he was "the important person in her life" at college and medical school, while to another contemporary, who published a supposed diary anonymously month by month in an English magazine, he was "Mr. James, I mean Mr. William James, the humorist who writes on Psychology, not his brother, the psychologist who writes novels." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a friend of James's youth, called him :a Celt and therefore illogical," though Holmes lived to glory in his own inconsistencies. In the eyes of brother Henry, the novelist, younger by fifteen months, William remained "my protector, my backer, my authority, and my pride." To the American public at the turn of the century William James was the well-known professor at Harvard - was it of philosophy or psychology? - who was alsi in demand as a lecturer to general audiences, something like the lat Mr. Emerson, but not so preacher-like, much more argumentative and lively. The works of this Cambridge notable were said to bring the United States a great deal of prestige - "the first American thinker with a European reputation." He was indeed the head and founder of a school of thought most easily - too easily - described as "characteristically American: something to do with energy, you know" - practicality, the individual, the pioneer optimism of those who by geographical good fortune see the road indefinitely open before them." - from the Prologue