Laura Dassow Walls
Laura Dassow Walls is an American literary scholar and biographer with a passion for philosophy, ecology, and narrative. She is renowned for her work in exploring the life and works of William James, an American philosopher and psychologist in the late 1800s. She has authored several works on the life and thought of the influential thinker including the highly acclaimed biographies The Passions of William James (2010) and Henry David Thoreau: A Life (2017).
Walls was born in 1946 in Michigan and raised in Pennsylvania. After studying philosophy and psychology at Harvard, she earned her Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research in 1985. She has since held teaching positions at wake Forest University, Wesleyan University, and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to her publications examining the life and works of William James, Walls is an active essayist, author of six books, and a frequent contributor to academic journals.
Walls is best known for her fiction, essays, and biographies exploring the life of William James. In The Passions of William James, she dives deep into James's cognitive and affective states from early childhood to late adulthood. The biography follows James through his student days as a philosopher, through his experiments as a psychologist, and into his later works in philosophy of religion and science.
Walls's biography of William James dives deep into the life and works of one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century. She revives the history of his personal and intellectual trajectory, offering an intimate view into his life, thoughts, and emotions. The biography reveals how James's thought involving the nature of truth, free will, and faith interacted with his experience and how those ideas influenced those around him.
In her book Henry David Thoreau: A Life, Walls provides an in-depth look at the life of the transcendentalist philosopher. As a young man, Thoreau was inspired by the works of William James and used his ideas as a launching point for his own philosophy. Walls presents a vivid picture of Thoreau's deep engagement with nature, his commitment to civil disobedience, and his searchingly reflective concept of life. She examines Thoreau's relationship with Emerson, shows how his Walden years shaped his later works, and explores his convictions about liberty, social responsibility, and justice.
In her latest book, Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Science (2021), Walls examines how Thoreau's engagement with the sciences of his day both upheld and challenged major intellectual trends. She investigates how he responded to the rise of scientific models of order and progress, as well as to the introspective and imaginative energies of science. Seeing New Worlds is an insightful look at Thoreau's inner journey and examines the complexities of his intellectual engagement with both its human and natural elements.
Combined, Laura Dassow Wall's publications have provided readers with a plethora of information about 19th-century thought and the lives of two key figures in that time: William James and Henry David Thoreau. Through her biographies and essays, Walls pays tribute to both their intellectual and spiritual legacies. By exploring their lives and thoughts, she adds valuable insights to our understanding of the history of 19th-century philosophy and the individuals who shaped it.
