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16. The Philosopher’s Widow
- University of Nebraska Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
(-& ', The Philosopher’s Widow¹decWdYWdadem^em a wife can miss her husband,” Alice informed Harvard professor Barrett Wendell six weeks after William’s death.1 In her case, however, William’s international reputation allowed her a sphere of action denied to most widows of her era. Driven as she had been to ensure his success while he was alive, she was now even more driven to ensure his reputation. Alice had told William that the day when his ideas would be accepted would come. Now it became her work to hasten that date. Such service was consistent with the ethical code she had followed since childhood. “He has left me with much to do for those he loved, and many a lesson to learn myself before I can hope to have the right to die,” she explained to Théodore Flournoy. “Sometimes I get a glimpse of a life so ordered, faithful & serviceable that I may follow him, though afar off.”2 She wore black every day for the rest of her life, long past the time dictated by mourning customs. The day after William’s funeral Alice and Henry returned to Chocorua. Autumn was beautiful, with “these innumerable mountains and great forests and frequent lakes, a magnificence of crimson and orange, a mixture of flames and gems,” as Henry described it to Mary Smyth Hunter.3 He decided to remain in America longer because the air was saturated j^[f^_beief^[h¼im_Zem (-' with William’s presence.4 For the time he needed Alice and her children, and they needed him. Henry rallied as best he could, though he confessed to Bob’s widow, Mary Holton James, “He was my best of friends in the world, as well as the greatest of brothers—and his death changes and blights everything for me. . . . We are living into what William’s extinction means for us—and verily we stagger under it.”5 Partly due to his added responsibility for Alice and her children, Henry’s depression lifted. He was the only one of the four James sons left, the virtual head of this fatherless family. Less than four weeks after William’s death he was able to work through the mornings, taking a drive or walking with one of Alice’s children in the afternoons.6 His health improved, and although that fall he fell ill again, he was relieved to be with Alice and her children.7 Alice, too, faced lonely days without William’s physical presence, even though she was convinced his spirit awaited her in the afterlife. She copied out a quotation about saints that Harry claimed formed the credo she lived by after his father’s death. “Why were the saints saints? because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful, and patient when it was difficult to be patient; because they pushed on when they wanted to stand still, and kept silent when they wanted to speak, and were agreeable when they wanted to be disagreeable. It was quite simple and always will be.”8 She had not always been a saint with William, but now she had no one who aroused her passions as he had. Theirs had been a deeply fulfilling marriage. To Bessie Evans she described her days: “I dust the books.”9 Alice’s first duty as widow involved replying to scores of sympathy letters . William’s writing and his many lectures had earned him countless friends and admirers who shared their grief with his family. Henry helped Alice answer the letters, both using black-bordered writing paper. “My sister-in-law & I have been breasting, since my brother’s death, a perfect flood of letters—as to the main mass of which however I have been able but to gape & sigh & postpone,” Henry confided to Jocelyn Persse.10 William’s death received attention around the world, from Boston to the J_c[i of London to the Paris [WbmWoic_dZ[Z^_iemdXki_d[ii.’”24 By '/'' the minister’s son, John Sumner Runnells, had become president of the Pullman Company, a powerful and very wealthy man. Alice Runnells and Billy had been seeing one another for some time. Peggy and Alice had been friends for years, the girls’ friendship allowing Billy and Alice to meet naturally.25 Peggy admired the adult Alice, claiming she was much more of a person than she appeared to strangers.26 Alice sometimes modeled for Billy’s paintings. Though Alice had noticed...