THE LETTERS OF
WILLIAM JAMES
From a photograph by Alice Boughton, New York, February 9, 1907
THE LETTERS OF
WILLIAM JAMES
EDITED BY HIS SON
HENRY JAMES
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS
BOSTON
Copyright, 1920, by
HENRY JAMES
To my Mother,
gallant and devoted ally
of my Father's most arduous
and happy years,
this collection of his letters
is dedicated.
PREFACE
WHETHER William James was compressing his correspondence into briefmessages, or allowing it to expand into copious letters, he could notwrite a page that was not free, animated, and characteristic. Many ofhis correspondents preserved his letters, and examination of them soonshowed that it would be possible to make a selection which should notonly contain certain letters that clearly deserved to be publishedbecause of their readable quality alone, but should also include lettersthat were biographical in the best sense. For in the case of a man likeJames the biographical question to be answered is not, as with a man ofaffairs: How can his actions be explained? but rather: What manner ofbeing was he? What were his background and education? and, above all,What were his temperament and the bias of his mind? What nativeinstincts, preferences, and limitations of view did he bring with him tohis business of reading the riddle of the Universe? His own informalutterances throw the strongest light on such questions.
In these volumes I have attempted to make such a selection. The task hasbeen simplified by the nature of the material, in which the mostinteresting letters were often found, naturally enough, to include themost vivid elements of which a picture could be composed. I have addedsuch notes as seemed necessary in the interest of clearness; but I havetried to leave the reader to his own conclusions. The work was begun in1913, but had to be laid aside; and I should regret the delay incompleting it even more than I do if it were not that very interestingletters have come to light during the last three years.
James was a great reader of biographies himself, and pointed again andagain to the folly of judging a man's ideas by minute logical andtextual examinations, without apprehending his mental attitudesympathetically. He was well aware that every