The seventh volume of a projected twelve continues the series of William James's correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues that was begun in volume 4. Consisting of some 488 letters, with an additional 510 calendared, it offers a complete accounting of his correspondence for the years 1890-94.

The chief event of the period is the publication of the long-awaited Principles of Psychology, which produced many congratulatory and critical letters from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Christine Ladd Franklin, Shadworth Hollway Santayana, James Mark Baldwin, and others. James devoted much effort to ensuring that Harvard did not fall behind its many emerging rivals in psychology, engineering the coming of Hugo Munsterberg to Harvard and raising funds for the psychological laboratory. Strains and a sense of rivalry began to develop with Granville Stanley Hall, his former student, who was established as president of nearby Clark University. Also of interest are his letters about and to Mary Whiton Calkins concerning her efforts to become a graduate student at Harvard.

James's major essay in ethics, "The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life, " appeared during this period and provoked considerable correspondence. Among the more curious letters is that to Alexander McKenzie, who after visiting James's classroom in an official capacity expressed concern about his lack of Christian faith.

These years saw the birth of James's last child, Alexander Robertson, and the death of his sister Alice. They were also the years of his long European sabbatical.

This fourth volume of a projected twelve begins a new series: William James's correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues. The 309 letters in this volume start when William James was fourteen and on his second trip abroad and conclude when he was thirty-five, negotiating with the president of Johns Hopkins University about a course he had been invited to teach on the relation between mind and body. William James's correspondence in these twenty years deals with everything from his protracted search for a vocation to his recurrent physical and emotional problems. The letters range from his relations with family and friends to his irregular education to his odd - one might say Jamesian - courtship of Alice Howe Gibbens and reveal his developing views on art, morality, politics, women, medicine, philosophy, science, religion, national character, the Civil War, the South, Americans abroad, and other writers and thinkers. They are witness to his growth into adulthood and the price he paid for that growth. William James's teenage letters reveal an adolescent amazingly charming and precocious who displayed from the beginning the promise of his maturity: witty, self-assured, and discerning. His letters simply dance with delight at the world around him. Packed with commentary, much of it considered and trenchant, the letters give us a young William James in the round, brilliantly.

William James, known for his contributions to psychology and philosophy, occupies a secure place in American intellectual history. The 12 volumes of ""The Correspondence of William James"" present his vast and entertaining correspondence with his brother Henry, with other members of his family, with friends and colleagues, as well as with enthusiasts and detractors among readers of his work. The publication of James's private letters complements the 17 titles of ""The Works of William James"". During the years covered in this second of 3 volumes devoted to the letters of William and Henry, each of the brothers underwent a period of trial or testing as a writer. Henry's attempts at fame as a playwright failed, and his 1880s novels did not receive the popular reception he had hoped for. William struggled for years to complete ""The Principles of Psychology"", while burdened by many responsibilities, intermittent depression and eye troubles, finally to have it published in 1890, 12 years after the contract date. These letters offer glimpses of the diverse academic, literary, and social worlds in which the brothers circulated, of Henry's friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson, William Dean Howells, Rudyard Kipling, and the American writer Constance Fenimore Woolson, who may have been in love with him. In William's letters he expresses pleasure and progress in his work, comments on Henry's writing, describes his meetings with and reactions to Paul Bourget and other continental writers, and even reports an attack of crab lice and an experiment with peyote. After the death of both parents in 1882 and of brother Garth Wilkinson in 1883, the famous family had dwindled to William, Henry, the unstable and alcoholic Robertson and the invalid Alice. The anxieties of William and Henry over the troubles of Robertson and Alice are a recurrent theme of these letters, particularly up to the time of Alice's death from breast cancer in 1892. William's letter show his continuous concern for and frustration with the philandering, alcholic Robertson. But it is Alice who elicits the most extensive and moving commentary. After her move to England in 1884, Henry writes at great length and poignancy of her difficulties. She emerges as an example of how American civilization laid crippling constraints on the development of young women. The correspondence in this volume also covers the birth of William's daughter, Margaret Mary (Peggy), and his fourth son, Francis Tweedy, later renamed Alexander Robertson, and the poignant death of 18-month-old Herman. It details William's purchase of a large farmhouse in New Hampshire and his building of a home in Cambridge, the two residences that afforded him some solitude for his periods of moodiness, melancholia and insomnia. Henry's letters, though occasionally hinting at some regret over his life as a confirmed bachelor, reveal how he cherished his solitude, because it suited him and was conducive to his literary art. Altogether, this volume is a window into the lives of two brothers who stood out as accomplished and influential figures in their generation.

William and Henry James are well known for their master works of psychology and fiction respectively, but the celebrated brothers amassed an impressive collection of letters to one another as well. Through their copious correspondence, readers are privy to the private thoughts of these intellectual heavyweights. Sure, their letters expound on philosophical, political, social, and cultural subjects with imagination and wit, but more often they focus on the quotidian: health, news of friends and family, mutual praise, advice, complaints, and good-natured ribbing. What makes these 216 epistles remarkable is the quality of writing and the keen observations made by the brothers James during their wide and frequent travels across America and Europe. The letters contained in "William and Henry James: Selected Letters" span more than 50 years and are infused with the history and events of their era. This volume illuminates each man's distinct personality and reveals the relationship the two crafted out of equal parts of criticism and support.