Catalyst for Controversy: Paul Carus of Open Court

8. Peirce

Peirce Paul Carus had a way oftaking up with incongruous people. His friend vv. E. Leonard wrote, "In turning over the pages of The Monist, The Open Court, or his numerous books, besides vigorous correspondence with such distinguished and ill-assorted friends as Ernst Haeckel, Tolstoy, and Pere Hyacinthe, one comes upon equally whole-hearted discussions with upstate clergymen in Michigan or small-town doctors in Illinois. . . , He took any thinking, or honest attempt at thinldng, seriously " (1919, 452). Carus took the time to respond to a plaintive query (29 Sept. 1892) from a barber and cigar dealer named Odenathwho found himself "socially ostracized" by the church members of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. Odenath asked where he might find "a large number ofpersons who read such books as Fundamental Problems & Homilies of Science," and Carns had to advise him that La Salle, like Birdsboro, was not such a place. Mrs. S. L. Wheeler of Pocasset, Massachusetts, asked, "What may be the object of the cosmos?" Carus essayed a thoughtful answer: "The Christian says the world exists for the glory of God. We might express the idea thus: something analogous to the satisfaction which fills a man by acting according to his nature, is taking place in the whole universe in the display of its being." Carus corresponded with W W. Tuttle, a young pastor of a Congregational church in Wancoma, Iowa, whose VOly liberal religiOUS views eaused him no trouble at all: "I translate my thoughts into their theological tongue.... My philosophy 125 126 0 Catalystfor Controversy teacher [at Grinnell College] said no one will botheryou ifyou don't brandyourself. I guess he is right." Carus sent him a copy of Goel and placed his name on the free list for a year of The Open Court (Tuttle to P. Carus, 14 May 1909; P. Carus to Tuttle, 4 May, 18 May 1909). A similar openness and patience held good in his editorial role. Unsolicited poetry is the bane ofmany editors' existence, but Carus seems to have been quite forbearing, perhaps because of his own tendency to commit poetry. He wrote several paragraphs to a Dl: T. T. Blaise (27 Feb. 1908) ofMason City, Iowa, before getting to the point: "Poetry is the language ofsentiment, ... [which] ought not to be indulged in too long. For this reason I deem it a serious drawback that your poem is almost one hundred pages long."1 In the early issues of The Monist Carus published both Cesare Lombroso's phrenological analysis-at-a-distanee ofthe Chicago anarchists (1891) and a coolly reasoned reply from one oftheir number, Michael Schwab (1891, 520-42), writing from Joliet prison., Later (19 Aug. 1901), William James \frote to Carus, passing along an article from Mrs. George Boole, "which I have read and advised her to send to you as the least convention-bound of editors" (Seott 1986). Carus needed all ofhis virtues during his twenty-fouryears of dealings with Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce, now acclaimed as "one of the greatest philosophers of all time" (Popper 1972, 212),2 often appeared to his contemporaries as a crank. Peirce was an academic outcast when Carus knew him, philosophizing from a remote, decaying Pennsylvania farmhouse . Nor was he easy to correspond with or to publish. Over time he proved himself perfectionistic, prickly, suspiciousquick to take offense but slow to perceive that he had given it. His proofs and manuscripts were often late; he was chronically short of money and often difficult over questions of payment. Carus had dealings with most of the well-remembered Ameriean philosophers of his time-Dewey, James, Roycebut he corresponded with Peirce more, and published more of Peirce o 127 his work, than those three combined (Sheridan 1957, 151). Carns did not care much for Peirce's metaphysics, but he admired his work in logic and philosophy of science. Carns solicited Peirce's contributions for The Monist and The Open Court (until 1900 the rate was $25 per 1,000 words [Peirce to F. C. Russell, ~ July 1890; Peirce to P. Carns, enclosure, 5 Nov. 1890]), advanced Peirce money when he needed it, and gave him other editorial work as available. He and Hegeler went to considerable trouble to publish Peirce's work in book form, although ultimately without success. Peirce wrote for many other publications. "I should really be ashamed to tell you how many articles I do write," he told the Chicago attorney Francis...