| William James was born in New York City in 1842. He was the son of wealthy parents whose enthusiasm for their children's education sent young James traveling throughout Europe. His formative years were spent in the best schools of France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. He vacillated from one interest to another, studying painting, chemistry, biology, and medicine. In 1869 he received a medical degree from Harvard University. Finally, at the age of 30, he accepted the teaching position at Harvard that launched his outstanding career in psychology. In 1875 James established at Harvard one of the first psychology demonstration teaching laboratories in the world. Three years later, at the age of 36, he married a Boston schoolteacher and began writing his most famous work, Principles of Psychology, which, to his publisher's dismay, took him almost 12 years to complete. James enjoyed great popularity as a lecturer at Harvard and was remembered by students as a vivacious personality whose extravagant sense of humor and picturesque language set him apart from the typical professor. His interests were tremendously varied: he wrote about such topics as habit, consciousness, personality, emotion, and religion. James continued to write, lecture, and travel until his death in 1910 at his country home in New Hampshire. |
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