James's decision to be a man of letters, not of business, resulted in large measure from the upbringing given him by his liberal parents. His father, Henry James, Sr., was a Swedenborgian philosopher who had rebelled against the Calvinism of his own youth. When the young Henry, under pressure from his schoolmates, asked him to name his profession, he replied, "Say I'm a philosopher, say I'm a seeker for truth, say I'm a lover of my kind, say I'm an author of books if you like; or, best of all, just say I'm a student." Henry's mother, Mary Robertson Walsh James, was a serene, capable woman with a large tolerance for "father's ideas," as they were known in the family circle. Repeatedly, the elder Jameses moved from one city and country to another in quest of the ideal environment in which to rear their five children: the eldest son, William (1842-1910); Henry, who always regarded William as his senior rival; and the youngest siblings, Garth Wilkinson (1845-1883), Robertson (1846-1910), and Alice (1848-1892). For Henry, an observant and introspective child, these moves provided a rich fund of impressions.
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