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Overview
Alice in Jamesland, the first biography of Alice Howe Gibbens James—wife of the psychologist and philosopher William James, and sister-in-law of novelist Henry James—was made possible by the rediscovery of hundreds of her letters and papers thought to be destroyed in the 1960s. Encompassing European travel, Civil War profiteering, suicide, a stormy courtship, séances, psychedelic mushrooms, the death of a child, and an enduring love story, Alice in Jamesland is a portrait of a nineteenth-century upper-middle-class marriage, told often through Alice’s own letters and made all the more dynamic because of her role in the James family.
Susan E. Gunter positions Alice as a lens through which to view the family, as a perceptive observer privy to knowledge of relationships to which those outside the James family were not. She also portrays Alice as the cohesive factor that held the Jameses together, bridging the gap between brothers William and Henry and acting as the stable center for a highly gifted but eccentric family. An idealistic, serious young woman, Alice was uniquely suited to join this clan, bringing psychological soundness and unshakeable personal conviction to her union with the Jameses. Her life’s story provides a fascinating view of one of America’s most important intellectual dynasties and offers new insights into the lives of nineteenth-century women.
Susan E. Gunter is a professor of English at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the coeditor (with Steven H. Jobe) of Dearly Beloved Friends: Henry James’s Letters to Younger Men and the editor of Dear Munificent Friends: Henry James’s Letters to Four Women.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780803215696 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nebraska |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2009 |
| Pages: | 464 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d) |
About the Author
Susan E. Gunter is a professor of English at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the coeditor (with Steven H. Jobe) of Dearly Beloved Friends: Henry James’s Letters to Younger Men and the editor of Dear Munificent Friends: Henry James’s Letters to Four Women.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue
1. Stirrings
2. New Ventures
3. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
4. Alice in Jamesland
5. The Grief Child
6. New Directions
7. 95 Irving Street and Beyond
8. On Sabbatical
9. The Will to Endure
10. To Nauheim
11. Mendings
12. A Form of Use
13. Lull Before the Storm
14. The Poet in Her
15. Last Things
16. The Philosopher's Widow
17. Passages
18. What to Make of a Diminished Thing
Genealogy Charts
Alice Howe Gibbens James Genealogy Chart
William James Genealogy Chart
Illustrations
Notes
Index