A solid, brass-tacks biography of the great American philosopher
and founder of pragmatism. Though his ideas received substantial
attention in their time, James has only come back into prominence,
especially outside the US, with the onset of postmodernism. An age
that despairs of fixed meaning finds a welcome resonance in James's
belief that truth should rest upon utility and practicality. But
Simon (The Biography of Alice B. Toklas, 1977, etc.) is not so
interested in James the thinker as James the conflicted, suffering,
frail, frustrated man. Her detailing of his childhood is
particularly revealing. His father, a wealthy and neurotic
erstwhile philosopher, kept the family constantly abroad, pulling
James and his siblings out of any school where they seemed to be
happily settling in. The existential expatriatism and
"philosophical hypochondria" of this childhood left deep marks. For
years, James struggled to find a focus acceptable to his father,
moving, between breakdowns, from art to science to medicine. When
he alighted at Harvard to teach at the medical school, he was by no
means certain he'd found his metier, and while he stayed put, he
quickly moved from anatomy and physiology to psychology, ethics,
and philosophy with an ease made possible only by his innate
brilliance and the looser academic standards of the 19th century
(James never even earned a Ph.D.). Very quickly, he began to enjoy
enormous and lucrative success as a lecturer and public
philosopher. However, as Chesterton once snidely observed, "It was
his glory that he popularized philosophy. It was his destruction
that he popularized his own philosophy." Though a lifelong sufferer
from those exotic 19th-century diseases now filed under the label
of neurosis, James finally succumbed to the ultimate hypochondriac
reward at the ripish age of 68. Simon does such a good job on
James's life, one only wishes she'd spent a little more time on his
ideas. (Kirkus Reviews)
Intellectual rebel, romantic pragmatist, aristocratic pluralist,
William James was both a towering figure of the nineteenth century
and a harbinger of the twentieth. Drawing on a wide range of
sources, including 1,500 letters between James and his wife,
acclaimed biographer Linda Simon creates an intimate portrait of
this multifaceted and contradictory man. Exploring James's
irrepressible family, his diverse friends, and the cultural and
political forces to which he so energetically responded, Simon
weaves the many threads of William James's life into a genuine, and
vibrant, reality.
"William James . . . has never seemed so vulnerably human as in
Linda Simon's biography. . . . [S]he vivifies James in such a way
that his life and thought come freshly alive for the modern
reader."--David S. Reynolds, "New York Times Book Review"
"Superb. . . . "Genuine Reality" is recommended reading for all
soul-searchers."--George Gurley, "Chicago Tribune"
"Ms. Simon . . . has provided an ideal pathway for James's
striding. . . . [Y]ou become engaged in his struggles as if they
were your own."--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "New York Times"
"[A]n excellent narrative biography at once sensitively told and
lucidly written."--John Patrick Diggins, "Wall Street Journal"
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