William and Henry James - (1811-1916)
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I. Background
No family has placed a more indelible and influential mark on American thinking than that of Henry James of Newport and his sons: William and Henry. The elder Henry James was a well-respected theologian and philosopher, greatly influencing his children to practice independent thought and action. Of his five children, Alice became an obscure writer, Henry James an outstanding voice in literature, and William James an innovative psychologist and philosopher.
Born to a wealthy Albany family, Henry James, Sr. became a transcendentalist (Swedenborgian) in his revolt against Calvanism and search for social reform. He exposed his children to the stimulus and education of the finest libraries and museums of Europe, and the company of renowned intellects. It was an environment that would forever pique their curiosity about life and influence their attitudes and choices.
While thoughtful William turned to painting, young Henry entered Harvard Law School, leaving him preoccupied with form and detail. Henry began writing in 1866, when he was twenty-one. Of his early works,
The American is considered the best. Henry's wit is seen in Daisy Miller, while Victorian gender issues were tested in The Bostonians. In his psychological study of The Portrait of a Lady, Henry felt the influence of his brother William's introspective ideas. William was a sounding board for his brother's development of works, but thought his works should be larger. Henry responded with A Portrait of A Lady.As Henry openly rejected New York society, William's ever questioning and evaluating mind was paving inroads to scientific approaches to philosophical ideas, embracing a pragmatism that would distinguish him as the first American scientific psychologist. William believed a person's will influenced all experience. If there were no consequences, then ideas were meaningless. If ideas were self-centered, then they were hopeless. "Man is an organism made for action" embodies William's perspectives. 1 William James' pragmatic philosophy influenced his brother, Henry, and author Gertrude Stein. His ideas would inspire John Dewey and Albert Einstein. An active Democrat, William was against commercialism, and became a national voice against imperialism. He believed war was the result of the decline of law and reason.
The James family leaves an unusual imprint upon the Newport Colony. Although Henry would gain fame as an important author of the Victorian period, he rejected life in America and remained in Europe. It is William that remained in America and devoted his life to understanding the meaning of the human existence. He said, "It is the character of inner happiness in the thoughts which stamps them as good...which make them pass for true..." 2
II. Life of the James Family
Note: Henry James, the father is referred to as "Snr."
1811: Henry James, Snr. born to a wealthy Albany family
1842: William born, New York City, January 11
1843: Henry James, New York City, born April 15
? : Alice, an invalid, born
? : Garth "Wilky", born
1855: The James family lives between Europe and Newport, summer 1858 and October 1860
1860-2: Family lives in Newport; William studies painting with William Morris Hunt; LaFarge is a mentor to both boys; Thomas Sergeant Perry (grandson of Oliver Hazard Perry) is their closest friend
1861: William attends Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard; Henry is a Newport volunteer fireman
1864: Family lives in Boston
1865: William explores Brazil with naturalist Agassiz, and studies physiology in Germany
c.1866: Henry enters Harvard Law School
1866: Family lives in Cambridge (MA)
1869-70: William graduates from Harvard Medical School; joins Harvard Physiology faculty, retiring in 1907
l872: William instructor in physiology at Harvard
c.1880: William instructor in psychology and philosophy at Harvard; lectured at Columbia and Oxford University
1875: James moves to Paris, making contact with Parisian literary notables—Turgenev, Flaubert, Maupassant, Daudet, Zoal, George Eliot, Browning, Ruskin, Tennyson, Browning, William Morris, Herbert Spencer, and Leslie Stephen
1877: James moves to England permanently
1890: William publishes Principles of Psychology, separates psychology from philosophy, bringing it to laboratory science
1890-1900: William investigates philosophical and religious issues: existence of God, immortality of soul, free will, and ethical values
1897: William writes The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, advocates that "Truth" is expedient thinking
1902: William writes The Varieties of Religious Experience, stating that mystical experience is a revelation of our superhuman consciousness
1906: "On Some Mental Effects of the Earthquake," The Youth's Companion, June 7; we wonder how others can survive an earthquake, but at the "place of action...animal insensitivity and heartiness" take over.
1910: William dies, Chocorua, NH, August 26
1915: James becomes British citizen
1916: James dies, London, February 28
III. A James Family Sampler
SNR-Henry James, Sr. / WJ-William James / HJ-Henry James, Jr.
SNR: Christianity, The Logic of Creation (1857)
SNR: Substance and Shadow (1863)
HJ: Roderick Hudson (1876)
HJ: The American (1877)
HJ: The Europeans (later made into movie) (1878)
SNR: Society and the Redeemed Form of Man (1879)
HJ: Daisy Miller, Confidence, Hawthorne, An International Episode, The Madonna of the Future (1879)
HJ: The Portrait of a Lady (published in serial form in Macmillan's Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly) (1880)
HJ: Washington Square (later made into movie) (1881)
HJ: The Portrait of a Lady (Boston: Houghton Mifflin) (1882)
HJ: The Bostonians, unsuccessful-published in Century Magazine (1886)
HJ: The Aspern Papers (made into movie) (1888)
HJ: Unsuccessful novels: The Princess Casamassima and The Tragic Muse (1890), turns to short stories and playwriting (c.1889)
WJ: Principles of Psychology (1890)
HJ: The American, the play (1891)
HJ: Guy Domville, the play (1895)
HJ: The Spoils of Poynton, What Masie Knew (1897)
WJ: The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular (1897)
IV. Philosophy
WJ-William James / HJ-Henry James, Jr.
HJ: Turn of the Screw (later made into movie) (1898)
WJ: Human Immortality (1898)
HJ: The Awkward Age (1899)
HJ: The Wings of the Dove (1902)
WJ: The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)
HJ: The Ambassadors (1903)
HJ: The Golden Bowl (1904)
HJ: A Small Boy and Others, autobiography (1913)
HJ: Notes of a Son and Brother, autobiography (1914)
V. Footnotes
1. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. William James: Introduction, Psychology, Pragmatism. Microscoft Corporation: 1993-1998
2. Kuklick, Bruce, ed. William James Writings 1902-1910: The Varieties of Religious Experience, Pragmatism, A Pluralistic Universe, The Meaning of Truth, Some Problems of Philosophy, Essays . NY: The Library of America Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., distributed by Viking Press, 1987, p. 23
VI. Other Sources
Bradbury, Malcom and Mottram, Eric, eds. The Avenel Companion to English & American Literature. Volume Two. United States of America. NY: Avenel Books, 1981. Henry James, Snr., Henry James, and William James biographies, pp. 132-35.
Harding, James. The Ox On The Roof, Scenes from musical life in Paris in the twenties. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1972, 261 pages.
Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion To Philosophy. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995. William James biography and The Principles of Psychology (1890), pp.424-26.
James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady. Introductions. NY: Penguin Books, 1984; NY: Vintage Books/The Library of America, 1992; and NY: The Modern Library, 1881,1909,1951.
Levey, Judith S. and Greenhall, Agnes, et al, eds. The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia. NY: Avon Books, 1983 "William and Henry James," p. 426; "pragmatism," p. 686
Magill, Frank N., et al, eds. Masterpieces of World Literature in Digest Form. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1949, 1952. Synopsis for Henry James: The American, Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, pp. 27, 182, 766.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Oxford History of the American People. NY: Oxford University Press, 1965, pp. 470, 529, 615, 781, 809, 892.
Perkins, George; Bradley, Sculley; Beatty, Richmond Croom; and Long, E. Hudson, Ed. The American Tradition in Literature. Shorter Edition in One Volume, 7th ed. NY: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 1990, pp. 1097-1180
Scherman, David E. and Redlich, Rosemarie. Literacy America (1607-1952). NY: Dodd, Mean & Company, 1952, pp.96-98
The New York Public Library Project, Ed. The New York Public Library Desk Reference, 2nd. Ed.. NY: A Stonesong Press Book, Prentice Hall General Reference, 189, 1993. Literature. Important U.S. and Canadian Authors, 206-229
VII. Web Resources
The Pleasures of Henry James
, book review by Fred Chappell in the News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina):
VIII. Video Resources
The Bostonians. To locate videos based on Henry James' works, visit the
American Collection's This essay was submitted by Susan Huetteman, a retired teacher from Rhode Island.