*SOLD*
The Principles of Psychology
William James
New York, 1890
 
A foundational work of modern psychology and thought in its first printing of only 1000 copies. The hallmarks of the first printing: The word "Psy-chology" is hyphenated in the ads opposite the title page. Two misprints: “the seat of intellectual power” rather than “not the sole seat of intellect” (Vol.1, p. 10, l. 9-10) and “object of some absent object of sensation” rather than “object of some absent sensation” (Vol. 2, p. 101, l. 20).
 
Two volumes - covers rubbed, spine ends bumped, top edges a bit dusty, miscellaneous pencil notations in the text.  Withal, a very sound and internally clean set which is probably Near Fine but I’ll conservatively call it Very Good.  Both volumes with a contemporary owner signature dated(October 1890) one month after publication, and later bookplates of Harvard psychologist Henry Wechsler.
 
“Twelve years in the writing, The Principles was, and in many ways still is, a document unique in the history of human thought.  Its author was not only completely conversant with the psychological literature in English, but with that in French, German, and Italian; and, as a result, The Principles presented the discipline for the first time as a truly international endeavor.  James was also an artist, with the artist's eye for shading and detail, and one of the English language's truly great prose stylists.  In The Principles these characteristics combined to yield some of the richest descriptions of human experience, human behavior, and human nature ever to appear in a work of non-fiction…Of all James's contributions, however, there are three for which he has been especially famous in the history of psychology: his analysis of the stream of thought, his characterization of the self, and his theory of emotion.”(Wozniak)

[philosophy, science]