Read Exuberance: The Passion for Life Online
Authors: Kay Redfield Jamison
I am indebted to the following individuals for generously agreeing to answer my questions about the role of exuberance in their lives: Dr. Samuel Barondes, the late J. Carter Brown, Dr. Andrew Cheng, Dr. Robert Farquhar, Dr. Carleton Gajdusek, Dr. Robert Gallo, Senator George McGovern, Katy Payne, Dr. Joyce Poole, Hope Ryden, Jean Schulz, Judy Sladky, Dr. James Watson, the late Senator Paul Wellstone, and Dr. Ellen Winner. Senator Wellstone died in an airplane accident in late 2002, before I was able to complete my follow-up interview with him. With regret, I decided that it would be best not to include his earlier, incomplete remarks in this book. Paul Wellstone was a magnificently exuberant man, and his contagious enthusiasm for life, ideas, and politics was of importance not only to those he represented in Minnesota but to the entire nation. He is greatly missed by those of us who were fortunate to work with him on mental health advocacy causes.
J. Carter Brown, for many years the director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., also died during the course of my writing this book. Because he had written out responses to my questions and we had, on many occasions and at great length, discussed the essential role of exuberance in his life, I felt comfortable including his observations here.
Several people were helpful to me while I was doing research for this book: Duncan Blanchard, atmospheric scientist and biographer of Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley; David Dugan, who provided
me with useful information about Michael Faraday’s lectures at the Royal Institution; Dr. Ellen Gerrity, Senator Wellstone’s legislative assistant for mental health and addiction issues; Randi and Hart Johnson and Keith Charles, who were gracious when I visited St. Paul, Minnesota, for the Peanuts on Parade Festival; the Reverend Stuart Kenworthy of Christ Church, Georgetown; Marla Krauss, Special Collections Librarian for Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History in New York; Alain Moreau, for his initial and elegant art design for the chapter illustrations; Jinny Nathans, Archivist, American Meteorological Society in Boston, for information about Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley; Diane Ney, Records Manager, Washington National Cathedral, for providing me access to the correspondence between Richard Feller, Clerk of the Works, and Rodney Winfield, the artist who designed the Cathedral’s stained-glass Space Window; and Marian O’Keefe and the staff of the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Financial support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has been generous and greatly appreciated.
I am indebted to those who read early versions of my manuscript and made helpful suggestions: Pat Conroy, Dr. Carleton Gajdusek, Dr. Robert Gallo, Donald Graham, William Graham, Dr. Jerome Kagan, Matt Ridley, Dr. Jeremy Waletzky, and Dr. James Watson. William Collins has, as always, typed my manuscripts with unbelievable accuracy, celerity, and grace under endless time pressures. Ioline Henter has been extraordinarily helpful in locating references, tracking down quirky topics, and ferreting out information of all kinds. Carol Janeway, my editor, has been her usual remarkable self. I am deeply indebted to her, as well as to Stephanie Koven Katz and Ellen Feldman at Knopf. Christopher Mead and Bradley Clements have also been enormously helpful. I am fortunate in my colleagues in the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, as well as in the School of English at the University
of St. Andrews in Scotland, especially Douglas Dunn, Robert Crawford, and Phillip Mallett. More than anyone else, however, I owe a profound debt to Silas Jones for his help, caring, and friendship.
I have been blessed with kind and generous friends who have seen me through some very difficult as well as wonderful times: Ray and Joanne De Paulo, Bob and Kay Faguet, Bob and Mary Jane Gallo, Chuck and Gwenda Hyman, Carol Janeway, Joanne Leslie, Alain Moreau, Bob Packwood, Norm Rosenthal, Jeff and Kathleen Schlom, Richard Sideman, and Jim and Liz Watson. Jeremy Waletzky has been a friend beyond imagining. My family, as always, has been a tremendous source of love and support: my mother, Dell Jamison; my father, Marshall Jamison; Julian and Sabrina, Eliot, and Leslie Jamison; Danica and Kelda Jamison; Kin Bing Wu; my cousin James Campen; and my brother, Dean Jamison.
My husband, Richard Wyatt, died while I was writing this book. He was delighted by the idea of my writing about exuberance, and he encouraged me in every conceivable way. He supported my ideas with enthusiasm, made many imaginative suggestions, and never let a day go by without expressing his love and encouragement. I admired him enormously: he was an excellent scientist and physician, as well as a gentle, immensely curious, and quietly exuberant man. I miss him more than I can say.
1.1
A page from John Muir’s diary. John Muir papers, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Libraries. Copyright 1984 by Muir-Hanna Trust.2.1
Photograph of a snowflake by Wilson A. Bentley. From Wilson A. Bentley and W. J. Humphrey’s
Snow Crystals
(New York: Dover Publications, 1962).3.1
Young gibbon in Kenya. Photograph by Manoj Shah.4.1
“Floating away over the roofs of the houses,” an illustration by Mary Shepard from
Mary Poppins
, copyright 1934 and renewed 1962 by P. L. Travers. Reproduced by permission of Harcourt, Inc.5.1
Classic English Champagne flute, circa 1750, from the
World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine
by Tom Stevenson. Published by The Wine Appreciation Guild, San Francisco.6.1
An engraving by Jan Caspar Philips,
Fireworks Theatre on the Vyver
, 1749, in celebration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.7.1
Comet West, March 7, 1976. Photograph by Betty and Dennis Milon, from Fred Schaaf’s
Comet of the Century: From Halley to Hale-Bopp
(New York: Springer-Verlag, 1997).8.1
Richard Feynman. Permission granted by the Estate of Richard Feynman. Courtesy of the Archives, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.9.1
“De Vroege Brabantsson,” from the Judith Leyster tulip book, 1643. Courtesy of the Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem.10.1
The Space Window, Washington National Cathedral. Stained glass by Rodney Winfield. Courtesy of the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Alfred A. Knopf:
Excerpt from “Dream Variations” from
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
by Langston Hughes. Copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House Inc.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science:
Excerpt from “The Untold Story of HUT78” from
Science
, 248: 1499–1507 (1990). Copyright © 1990 by AAAS. Reprinted by permission of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.:
Excerpts from “Individual Distinctiveness of Brown Bears” by R. Fagen and J. M. Fagen from
Ethology
, 102: 212–26 (1996). Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Cambridge University Press:
Excerpts from
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections
, 2d ed., by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, edited by Katherine Haramundanis. Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press.
The Central African Journal of Medicine:
Excerpt from “Provine” by A. M. Rankin and P. J. Philip from
The Central African Journal of Medicine
, 9: 167–70 (1963). Reprinted by permission of
The Central African Journal of Medicine
.
Crumb Elbow Publishers:
Excerpt from “Dedicatory Oda” from
Hillaine Belloc: A Collection of Poems
edited by Edward Thompson. Reprinted by permission of Crumb Elbow Publishers.
David Higham Associates Limited:
Excerpts from “Canticle of the Sun: Dancing on Easter Morning” from
Collected Poems: 1943–1987
by John Heath-Stubbs (Carcanet Press). Reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates Limited.
Dutton Children’s Books and Egmont Books Limited:
Excerpts from
The House at Pooh Corner
by A. A. Milne, illustrations by E. H. Shepard. Copyright © 1928 by E. P. Dutton, renewed © 1956 by A. A. Milne. Copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Dutton Children’s Books, A Division of Penguin Young Readers Group, A Member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 and Egmont Books Limited, London.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC:
Excerpts from
Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journey
by Michael Collins. Copyright © 1974 by Michael Collins. Excerpt from “Balloon” from
Collected Poems
by Robert Lowell. Copyright © 2003 by Harriet Lowell and Sheridan Lowell. Excerpts from
To Reach the Clouds
by Philippe Petit. Copyright © 2002 by Philippe Petit. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
Hal Leonard Corporation:
Excerpt from the song lyric “Ya Got Trouble” from Meredith Willson’s
The Music Man
by Meredith Willson. Copyright © 1957, 1966 (Renewed) by Frank Music Corp. and Meredith Willson Music. Excerpt from the song lyric “Rock Island” from Meredith Willson’s
The Music Man
by Meredith Willson. Copyright © 1957, 1958 (Renewed) by Frank Music Corp. and Meredith Willson Music. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.:
Excerpts from
General Patton: A Soldier’s Life
by Stanley P. Hirshson. Copyright © 2002 by Stanley P. Hirshson. Excerpts from
Giants in the Earth
by O. E. Rölvaag. Copyright 1927 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Renewed 1955 by Jennie Marie Berdahl Rölvaag. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Houghton Mifflin Company:
Excerpt from “To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph” from
All My Pretty Ones
by Anne Sexton. Copyright © 1962 by Anne Sexton, © renewed 1990 by Linda G. Sexton. Excerpts from
The Life and Letters of John Muir
edited by W. F. Bade. Copyright © 1923, 1924 by Houghton Mifflin Company, renewed 1951, 1952 by John Muir Hanna. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.
International Creative Management, Inc.:
Excerpts from “Why Men Love War” by William Broyles from
Esquire
(November 1984). Copyright © 1984 by William Broyles. Reprinted by permission of International Creative Management, Inc.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers:
Excerpts from “Early Inspiration” from
Creativity Research Journal
, 7: 341–49 (1994). Reprinted by permission of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.
New Directions Publishing Corp. and David Higham Associates Limited:
Excerpts from
The Crack-up
by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Copyright © 1945 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Excerpt from “Fern Hill” from
The Poems of Dylan Thomas
by Dylan Thomas. Copyright © 1945 by The Trustees for the Copyrights of Dylan Thomas. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. and David Higham Associates Limited.
New Directions Publishing Corp. and Pollinger Limited:
Excerpt from “I Am Cherry Alive” from
Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge
by Delmore Schwartz. Copyright © 1959 by Delmore Schwartz. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. and Pollinger Limited and the proprietor.
The New York Review of Books:
Excerpt from “Lucky Jim” by Peter Medawar from
The New York Review of Books
(March 28, 1968). Copyright © 1968 by NYREV, Inc. Reprinted by permission of
The New York Review of Books
.
The New York Times Agency:
Excerpts from “Looking Back at Pure World of Theoretical Physics” by Alan Lightman from the
New York Times
(May 9, 2000). Copyright © 2000 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted by permission of The New York Times Agency.
Perseus Books Group:
Excerpts from
The Meaning of It All
by Richard Feynman. Copyright © 1998 by Michelle Feynman and Carl Feynman. Reprinted by permission of Perseus Books Group.
Scribner:
Excerpts from
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
by James D. Watson. Copyright © 1968 by Elizabeth L. Watson, as trustee under agreement with James D. Watson. Copyright renewed © 1996 by James D. Watson. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group:
Excerpts from
Silent Thunder: In the Presence of Elephants
by Katy Payne, illustrations by Laura Payne. Copyright © 1998 by Katy Payne. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.
Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc.:
Excerpt from the song lyric “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love,” words and music by Cole Porter. Copyright © 1928 by Warner Bros. Inc. (Renewed). Excerpt from the song lyrics “The Colors of My Life” and “The Prince of Humbug,” music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Michael Stewart. Copyright © 1980 by Notable Music Co., Inc. All rights administered by WB Music Corp. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.
Yale University Press:
Excerpts from
The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson
edited by Bradford A. Booth and Ernest Mehew. Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press.