In this biography of William James, Robert D. Richardson claims that he seeks ". . . to understand his life through his work, not the other way around" (xiii). This he does not do. Rather, where Richardson does excel is in biographical narrative or in his own words, in the aim "to present James' life [rather] than to analyze or explain it" (xiii).

Richardson covers fascinating biographical territory familiar to readers of this journal. He provides an excellent narrative description of James's relation to his father Henry James, Sr. He helpfully accounts for the latter's influence on William as well as their intellectual differences. Richardson's descriptions of the warm relationship between William and his brother Henry and his sister Alice provide rewarding and illuminating reading. Similarly, Richardson documents the relationship to William's less successful brothers Bob and Wilky with a combination of compassion and toughness. More significantly than other biographers of James, Richardson devotes considerable attention to James's relationship to his first cousin, Minnie Temple. Richardson suggests that while James did not believe in first cousin marriages, the two seemed very much to be in...