3 - The Great Chorus of Life and Joy Begins Again

Summary

This chapter discusses the effect of the war on Holmes’s attitude toward life. It refutes the conventional view that it made him cynical and detached. This view has been echoed through fifty years of scholarship, each retelling increasing the dimension of the war’s harmful effect on his character. To the contrary, I argue that the war did not diminish Holmes’s exuberance or his ability to form relationships. He was still the Emersonian idealist – eager to encounter life and engage with it intellectually. As evidence, I cite his close relationship with William James and contrast him with his cousin Johnny Morse and his friend Henry Adams.