one of the greatest procrastinators of all time

William James. Born to wealth and privilege, he was also plagued early on with nervous disorders and self-loathing. It took James until age 48 to publish his landmark Principles of Psychology, and by that point it had been under contract with the publisher for a very, very long time. (And 48 was a lot older then than it is now.)

My favorite accidental discovery in the AUC Library was that we have a 1st British edition of the Principles. That didn’t belong in the stacks, where someone could take it home and spill orange juice on it, so they agreed to my request that it be moved to the Rare Books Library.