Description: William James, well known for his contributions to psychology and philosophy, occupies a secure place in American intellectual history. This truly Renaissance man will now be well known in addition for his vast and entertaining correspondence with his brother Henry, with members of his family, and with friends, scholars, and enthusiasts and detractors among his reading public. The publication of James's private letters complements the seventeen titles of The Works of William James.

This fifth volume of a projected twelve-volume edition chronicles James's emergence into professional and personal maturity. During this period James took decisive steps toward resolving his notoriously protracted and difficult search for a profession. He published his first substantial signed articles and undertook some shrewd academic maneuvering that would secure him a chair in philosophy despite his lack of formal training. He also corresponded with several prominent scholars and editors about the ideas that were to form the basis of The Principles of Psychology, the work on which he embarked in 1878 and which was to establish his international reputation. By the close of the volume in 1884 he had succeeded not only in defining himself as a philosopher but also in dramatically changing the character of the discipline of philosophy in the United States.

This period also marked many changes in James's personal life. He married; he became the father of three sons, Henry, William, and Herman; and, following the death of his parents, he took on the stature and responsibility of head of family for his four siblings. The correspondence is dominated by his letters to his wife, Alice, whom he married in 1878and upon whom he relied for emotional support and affirmation. These letters, most of which have never been published, give us an intimate portrait of their marriage. His father's final illness in 1882 provides an occasion for reflection upon their at times difficult relationship: "I know not what freezing has come over me often in his presence", wrote James in December of that year, "so that my admiration of him I let all see but himself". He acknowledges the debt owed to the "central figure" in his life in his farewell letter to his father: "All my intellectual life I derive from you.... What my debt to you is goes beyond all my power of estimating, -- so early, so penetrating and so constant has been the influence.

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