August 3, 2023: SiblingStudying: William and Henry James

[On August2nd, this AmericanStudier’s amazing youngersister celebrates her birthday. So this week in her honor I’llAmericanStudy interesting American siblings!]

On theinfluential and inspiring relationship between America’s most talented pair ofbrothers.

Of all thetopics I’ve researched, pondered, and analyzed over this blog’s nearly thirteenyears, I don’t think I’ve spent anywhere near as much time thinking about anyone of them (or maybe even all of them combined) compared to the relationshipbetween two close (in age and every other sense) brothers. My sons are 15.5months apart (I know I should just say 16, but no, those two additional weekscount!), and as far as I can tell, few if any aspects of their young lives (atleast until my older son leaves for college, which is so far in the futurestill that who can even imagine it?!) are going to be untouched by that fact,and by the complex interconnections it has already produced and continues toproduce. Obviously I have my fondest hopes for what that will mean (exemplifiedright now by the way they cheer on each other’s divergent yet equallyimpressive running careers) and my scariest worries about it (such as my fearthat if they drift apart it will have a profoundly negative influence on bothof their futures), but no matter what, this is clearly going to be a definingrelationship and influence in each of their lives.

I’m nottrying to put too much pressure on the boys, but you know who else were bornalmost exactly 15.5 months apart? Williamand Henry James, the brothers whose influences and talents extended intovirtually every aspect of late 19th and early 20thcentury American and British society and culture. Perhaps the older William’s far-reaching investigations intomedicine, psychology, philosophy, and religion impacted more conversations andcommunities than did theyounger Henry’s work as an author of fiction, drama, travelwriting, literary criticism, and autobiographies; but just as those branches ofthe sciences and social sciences would not have been the same without William’simpacts, so too were American and English literature and cultureprofoundly impactedby Henry’s works and ideas, style and themes. While I have no doubt that thebrothers would gladly have quarreled over whose legacy was more significant,probably while at the same time making the case for each other’s importance,the truth is that the combination is more impressive, and more accurate totheir collective legacies, than the competition.

Perhapsthe most overt and poignant tribute to that brotherly combination was writtenby Henry himself, in the opening chapters of his memoir A SmallBoy and Others (1913). William had died a few years earlier,in 1910, and while any memoir is likely produced by a number of psychologicalfactors, there’s no question that his brother was heavily on Henry’s mind as hewrote this one. The opening chapter, in fact, begins this way: “In the attemptto place together some particulars of the early life of William James andpresent him in his setting, his immediate native and domestic air, so that anyfuture gathered memorials of him might become the more intelligible andinteresting, I found one of the consequences of my interrogation of the pastassert itself a good deal at the expense of some of the others.” It’s not atall clear at this point, nor for many chapters, whether the titular small boyis Henry or William; and since the text continues to focus on the pair of themfor many more chapters (indeed more than half of the chapters), it could withjust as much accuracy be titled Two SmallBoys. Boys whose lives and legacies would likewise always and compellinglybe interconnected.

Lastsiblings tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Sibling stories you’d highlight?