Skip to main content

WILLIAM JAMES In the Maelstrom of American Modernism

By


Not so long ago I picked up this book, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.  Here is a review from the NY Times,

To trace the subtle reciprocities between philosophizing and living is the ambitious task that Robert D. Richardson sets himself in his absorbing, if also frustrating, biography “William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism.” James’s philosophical conclusions played themselves out in a life of such endearing originality as to lead Alfred North Whitehead to call him “that adorable genius,” and he has served as a hero in more than one novel, including my own “Dark Sister.” Richardson goes after the man with the gusto, indefatigability for detail, and, yes, adoration, that William James deserves.

Comments

  1. avrdsMay 24, 2010 at 4:51 PM

    I was never a big reader of biography, but after joining up with you all at the Times I learned to enjoy them -- and I really learned a lot from reading them.

    I think I have this bio of James. Richardson is the writer I've been wanting to read. He wrote the bios of Emerson and Thoreau I mentioned earlier, and is supposed to be great. Apparently he reads everything the person he's writing about read and wrote to prepare for his biographies. Which is a fascinating approach.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RickMay 26, 2010 at 4:56 AM

    James comes across as something of a fool in The Metaphysical Club. He was hopelessly indecisive.

    ReplyDelete
  3. avrdsMay 27, 2010 at 8:07 PM

    I need to reread that book. I remember really liking it when I read it, but remember very little about it now. Not sure if that's the book, or just me....

    ReplyDelete
  4. RickMay 27, 2010 at 11:27 PM

    The only books I remember are the ones I study.

    ReplyDelete
  5. avrdsMay 28, 2010 at 12:38 AM

    I remember (some) novels more than non-fiction. But some books of history seem to have greater sticking power than others, although the general background seems to stay with me. I think I read this one with the NY Times reading group.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

By
It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi
12 comments
Read more

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

By
  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro
228 comments
Read more

Colonel

By
Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!
240 comments
Read more