In Infinite Good: The Mountains of William James, author and
naturalist, J. Parker Huber, follows the famed naturalist and
philosopher William James sojourns in New England. The
Adirondacks--where neither Muir nor Thoreau tread--James revealed, had
the greatest influence on his life. He made annual pilgrimages there in
late nineteenth century. He bought land there, as well as a farm at the
south base of Mount Chocorua in the White Mountains of New Hampshire,
which became his country home.
Drawing on James's faithfully recorded itineraries, author J. Parker
Huber provides comprehensive and well-documented summaries about the
excursions of William James and his family. William James became
increasingly aware of nature's beneficence. In 1872, then thirty, he
confided to Henry in two letters what he had drawn from his Maine coast
experiences that summer. In the first, of 24 August, he wrote that the
"nervouspuckers" of his mind had been "smoothed out gently & fairly by
the sweet influences of many a lie on a hill top at mt. Desert with sky
& sea & Islands before me, by many a row, and a couple of sails, and by
my bath and siesta on the blazing sand this morn." And, again in the
fall of 1872, he wrote that he had "never so much as this summer felt
the soothing and hygienic effects of nature upon the human spirit."
Earlier his enjoyment of nature had been a "luxury, but this time t'was
as a vital food, or medicine." And so it remained for his life.
J Parker Huber provides a fascinating look at the prominent
philosopher's love of the mountains and the solace he found there.
Readers will appreciate the scholarly research, but also participate in
the alpinist's adventures and revelations.
