Exuberance: The Passion for Life

by Kay Redfield Jamison

  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.

  Illustrations

  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.

  Permissions Acknowledgments

  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 per
mission 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.

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kay Redfield Jamison is Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She is the author of the national best-sellers An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, and Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament. She is the coauthor of the standard medical text on manic-depressive illness and author or coauthor of more than a hundred scientific papers about mood disorders, creativity, and psychopharmacology. Dr. Jamison, the recipient of numerous national and international scientific awards, was distinguished lecturer at Harvard University in 2002 and the Litchfield lecturer at the University of Oxford in 2003. She is a John P. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow.