ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
The Collected Letters of Henry Northrup Castle:
“I am delighted to learn that The Collected Letters of Henry Northrup Castle, originally prepared for limited distribution in 1902 by Castle’s sister and brother-in-law (Helen Castle Mead and George Herbert Mead), will be made available to a much wider audience by Ohio University Press.
“Henry Castle, who died tragically in an accident at sea when he was in his early thirties, exerted a strong influence upon the early intellectual development of the American philosopher and social psychologist, George Herbert Mead, during their shared days as students at Oberlin College, Harvard, and Leipzig University. He was also a gifted writer whose letters shed light upon contemporary political events during his brief career as a newspaperman in Honolulu.
“Alfred L. Castle deserves great credit for making possible the republication of these letters and for writing an elegant introduction in which he clearly outlines their historical significance.”
—Gary A. Cook, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy,
Beloit College, and author of George Herbert Mead: The Making of a Social Pragmatist
THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF
HENRY NORTHRUP CASTLE
Edited by George Herbert Mead and Helen Castle Mead
Introduction by Alfred L. Castle Foreword by Marvin Krislov
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS, OHIO
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE
SAMUEL N. AND MARY CASTLE FOUNDATION
HONOLULU, HAWAII
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
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Letters originally published 1902 in a private printing
in London as Henry Northrup Castle: Letters.
Printed in the United States of America
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Castle, Henry Northrup, 1862—1895.
[Correspondence]
The collected letters of Henry Northrup Castle / edited by George Herbert Mead and Helen Castle Mead; introduction by Alfred L. Castle; foreword by Martin Krislov.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
Originally issued as: Letters. London: [privately printed], 1902.
ISBN 978-0-8214-2011-9 (pb: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8214-4431-3 (electronic) 1. Castle, Henry Northrup, 1862–1895—Correspondence. 2. Mead, George Herbert, 1863–1931—Correspondence. 3. United States—Intellectual life—1865— 1918. I. Mead, George Herbert, 1863–1931. II. Mead, Helen Castle, 1860. III. Title.
E169.1. C37 2012
973.8092 — dc23
2012039072
CONTENTS
Introduction by Alfred L. Castle
A Few Recollections of Henry’s Childhood by Helen Castle Mead
The Collected Letters of Henry Northrup Castle
FOREWORD
George Herbert Mead began corresponding with Henry Northrup Castle in the summer of 1883, shortly after they graduated from Oberlin College. During their time on our campus, the two had become close friends. They edited the Oberlin Review, our student newspaper, fueled each other’s deep interest in literature and culture, and delighted in debating philosophy with Professor John M. Ellis, and with James H. Fairchild, Oberlin’s third president (1866—89). In a letter to his parents in the fall of 1882, Castle wrote, “I wonder what Prof. Ellis thinks of George and myself. He must regard us as a perfect nuisance, because hardly a day passes in Mental Philosophy when we do not start a discussion with him. We have lots of fun, too, asking questions of Pres. Fairchild, who has our Bible class.”
I am certain neither teacher was surprised when Mead and Castle went on to become nationally prominent thinkers and philosophers. Since Oberlin’s founding in 1833, its graduates have been expected to employ their education and energies to bring about positive social changes benefiting all humankind. That ethos can be traced back to the teachings of John Frederick Oberlin, the extraordinary French pastor whose belief in enlightened education as the path to social improvement, economic betterment, and democracy inspired our founders. Belief in the uplifting power of education inspired Mead, Castle, and John Dewey to become pioneers of progressive education and influenced Harriet Castle, Henry’s sister and a fellow Oberlin grad, to spearhead the free kindergarten movement in Hawaii after Henry’s tragic death in 1895.
At Oberlin, George Mead and Henry Castle’s friendship grew from their shared love of learning and insatiable intellectual curiosity. As undergraduates, they read, studied, discussed, wrote, and developed a driving scholarly ambition. They learned to cherish the life of the mind, to think and reason independently, to teach themselves and others, and to accept responsibility for improving society. Through their thinking, teaching, and writing they passed those values on to generations of young people. Henry Castle’s letters offer an intimate and important perspective on how their friendship and ideas grew and evolved. It is the hope of all of us at Oberlin College that the republication of the letters of Henry Northrup Castle will help educate and inspire new generations of students, teachers and scholars, in Hawaii and the world.
Marvin Krislov
