Biography of William James by Robert D Richardson

I am really not in the mood to post anything on my literature blog, but it's been awhile, and I am so excited about the book I am reading, I felt I had to post something, even if it is lame.

I am currently reading Robert D Richardson's biography of William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, c. 2006.

This is an excellent book; I am enjoying it very much and reading it very slowly to savor every bit of it. This is more than just a biography of Miller. It is the history of the development of psychology, religious thought, and philosophy in America. In the preface, it is noted that some consider William James one of history's four greatest thinkers, alongside Plato, Aristotle, and Leibniz.

The book could easily have been subtitled "The History of Harvard University in the 1800's and Early 1900's."

I'm currently spending some time in Boston and find that I cannot visit Harvard Square and the Harvard Bookstore often enough. And then to find this book simply through serendipity is almost too much.

I have enjoyed the book on so many levels, but in the first few chapters, my biggest joy is seeing the books that William James read in his coming-of-age years and to note how many I have enjoyed, to include, in no particular order:

• Homer's Odyssey and Iliad
• Goethe, especially The Sorrows of Younger Werther, Italian Journey
• George Eliot's Middlemarch
• Darwin's On the Origin of Species 
• Wilkie Collins's Woman in White
• Shakespeare's Hamlet

Woman in White was mentioned more than once and turned out to be one of my favorite books; it was recommended to me by a friend. Had it not been so recommended I never would have read it. I was also happy to see Middlemarch mentioned. I did not realize at the time I was reading it how it is considered one of the great books in literature. I picked that book up, also, at a discount book store just out of curiosity and it turned out to be one of my favorites.