A Modern Library edition THE PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM JAMES by Horace Kallen, read and reviewed(but mostly name-dropping;) by N.H.V.V.

A thrilling account of a suicidal depression which James worked his way out of, and when he had regained his mental stability, experienced an outburst of creative activity and insight, leading to his major work in philosophy which was supported by his experience of teaching wonderful students at Harvard. This is before he became a full professor of philosophy there. William James is credited as being the father of Pragmatism in philosophy and some of his major works are: Varieties of Religious Experience and Principles of Psychology (these are two separate books). This was pre-Freud. Pat Watson Wanning who was one of my parents' great friends told them that her father had devoted his whole life to developing treatments based on the work of William James on psychology. Once Freudian theory swept through America and Europe these treatments became neglected and eventually no longer used. In the Introduction to The Philosophy of William James you see a man working his way out of suicidal depression which could have destroyed him. William had the good instinct to take himself to a Swiss spa where he got his health back by taking warm mineral baths and being well cared for. The introduction by Kallen is a damn good read and full of hope. I haven't yet started the book. If I read it I'll report more later.

William James' father, Henry James Sr. had inherited a fortune from his father and was able to take his family for extended periods to Europe where they were tutored and free to visit all the great monuments: The cathedrals and museums and castles which so enriched their children's lives, producing not only one of the great American novelists but one of it's great philosopher-psychologists.

Another wonderful book is by Peter Brooks, another good friend of my parents, which is titled Henry James Goes to Paris, which is about the period Henry James spent in Paris and all over France, returning to some of his favorite places of his childhood, describing his joyous car rides with Edith Warton and his friendship with Turgeniev, whom he knew in Paris. Copy Right 2011 by Nicholas Van Vactor, All Rights Reserved.