Juliette Peirce
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Juliette Peirce (; d. October 4, 1934) was the second wife of the mathematician and philosopher
Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss (philosopher), Paul ...
.


History

Almost nothing is known about Juliette Peirce's life before she met Charles—not even her name, which is variously given as Juliette Annette Froissy or Juliette Pourtalai. Some historians believe she was French, but others have speculated that she had a
Gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...
heritage (Ketner 1998, p. 279ff).Ketner, Kenneth Layne (1998), ''His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce'', Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, TN, 416 pages, hardcover. Uses a fictional framing device, but most of the book presents Peirce's own words and the words of his family and friends. On occasion, she claimed to be a
Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...
princess.Brent 1998, p. 143. Scanty facts about her provide only a few possible clues to her past. She spoke French, had her own income, had gynecological illnesses that prevented her from having children, and owned a deck of
tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...
cards said to have predicted the downfall of
Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
. She probably first met Charles in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
at the Hotel Brevoort's New Year's Eve ball in December 1876.


Controversy

Charles Peirce's first wife, Harriet Melusina Fay, had left him in 1875, but he was not divorced from her until 1882. Charles and Juliette became close friends and travel companions, and were likely romantically involved before his divorce was official. This indiscretion is sometimes said to have cost him his career. Peirce had a teaching position at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
. When he was being considered for a permanent post, one of the major American scientists of the day,
Simon Newcomb Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadians, Canadian–Americans, American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins ...
, who apparently did not like Peirce, pointed out to a Johns Hopkins trustee that Peirce, while an employee of the university, had traveled with a woman to whom he was not married. The ensuing scandal led to Peirce's dismissal. His later applications to many universities for teaching posts were all unsuccessful, and in fact he never again held a full-time permanent position anywhere. As a result, Juliette was often blamed for Peirce's failure to reach the eminent social stature his intellect might have commanded. There were strains with Peirce's mother Sarah, brother Jem (James Mills Peirce), and most of all his aunt Lizzie, who owned the house in which Sarah and Jem lived, but despite that and strains in the marriage itself, Peirce remained powerfully attached to Juliette. In a diary entry for January 6, 1889, Peirce wrote, regarding Juliette's health, "If I should lose her, I would not survive her. Therefore, I must turn my ''whole'' energy to saving her." Except during occasional travels by one or the other, they remained together until his death in 1914, and she never remarried. 215px, Juliette and Charles by the well at their home, Arisbe, in 1907


Arisbe

In 1887 Peirce spent part of his inheritance from his parents to buy 2,000 acres (8 km2) of rural land near
Milford, Pennsylvania Milford is a borough that is located in Pike County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat. Its population was 1,103 at the time of the 2020 census. Situated near the upper Delaware River, Milford is part of the New York metropo ...
, land that never yielded an economic return. There he had an 1854 farmhouse remodeled to his design. The local people, many of whom were French, accepted Juliette. The Peirces led an active social life there and became friends with relatives of
Gifford Pinchot Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Pennsyl ...
. Except for occasional travels and stays elsewhere, the Peirces spent the rest of their lives there. They named their property ''Arisbe'' for possibly any or all of the following reasons: * The ancient city of Arisbe was a colony of the city-state of
Miletus Miletus (Ancient Greek: Μίλητος, Mílētos) was an influential ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in present day Turkey. Renowned in antiquity for its wealth, maritime power, and ex ...
, which was the scene of much early Greek philosophy and science. * The ''
Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...
'' tells of Axylus, who welcomed all passers-by into his house near a public road in Arisbe, Homer remarking that later none of them stood between Axylus and death in battle. * Reasons connected with other meanings of "Arisbe" (see Arisbe (disambiguation)). * "Arisbe" is an anagram of French ''baiser'', "kiss" (a word that since the 16th century has also meant "to have sexual intercourse"). Even as they sank into poverty, they continued to make expansions to the house, almost losing it and their land because of unpaid debts.


A Santiago conjecture

In ''His Glassy Essence'' (1998), p. 279ff, Kenneth Ketner speculates that Juliette was of Spanish Gypsy origin, and that Charles's adding "Santiago" to his name was his way of "informally ... paying tribute to his wife ... and to her cultural origins as a Spanish woman who was a Gitano, or Spanish Gypsy of Andalusia." It involves the movement of
Gypsies {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...
into Spain along the pilgrimage to
Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...
, Santiago's being the patron saint of Spain, Juliette's being in Spain at the time when Peirce's friend and colleague Ernst Schröder's ''Logik'' was published, and other reasons.


Illnesses and Juliette's widowhood

Peirce suffered from his late teens through the rest of his life with an ailment then known as "facial neuralgia" which would today be diagnosed as
trigeminal neuralgia Trigeminal neuralgia (TN or TGN), also called Fothergill disease, tic douloureux, trifacial neuralgia, is a chronic pain, long-term pain disorder that affects the trigeminal nerve, the nerve responsible for sensation in the face and motor funct ...
, a chronic, intensely painful condition against which he self-medicated with drugs such as
morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
,
cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
, and
alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...
. His mental and physical illnesses worsened with time, and he suffered numerous breakdowns over the course of his life, rendering him increasingly unreliable. His earnings from temporary posts, lectures and articles dwindled, until he and Juliette lived in poverty. At his death he had more than 100,000 pages of unpublished writing. Juliette sold these to
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
and Victor Lenzen was responsible for relocating them there. In her later years, Juliette was described as increasingly frail. She contracted, and eventually died of,
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. When Peirce died in 1914, Juliette was left destitute and alone. She lived another twenty years, dedicated to bringing Peirce and his ideas the recognition she believed they deserved. An obituary in ''
Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'' described herSee p. 441 in ''Science'' v. 80, 1934. as a "gracious lady" who "lived and passed away...in the distinction of her devotion."


In popular culture

''Pierce-Arrow'', by Susan Howe, New Directions, 1999, consists of an essay and poems focusing on Charles and his wife Juliette. The spelling of the title is correct, referring to the old motor car company, as well as punning for example on the Peirce arrow logical symbol for "neither...nor...".


References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Peirce, Charles Sanders and Ketner, Kenneth Laine (1998), ''His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce'', Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville, TN, 416 pages, hardcover. Uses a fictional framing device, but most of the book presents Peirce's own words and the words of his family and friends. Book's Internet homepage
http://www.wyttynys.net/
* Brent, Joseph L. (1993, 1998), ''Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life'', Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, first edition 1993. Revised and enlarged edition, 1998, 432 pages, Indiana University Press, and 1998, NetLibrary. * Houser, Nathan (2000), "Introduction", '' Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition'', v. 6
Eprint
of "Introduction". Biographical account of C. S. Peirce along with Juliette during 1887 through spring 1890. * Kiryushchenko, Vitaly (2008), "In the Net of Abductions"
PDF Eprint
(University of Helsinki ''Commens'

, a 2008 translation of Chapter 9, which focuses on Juliette, in a Russian biography of C. S. Peirce ''Чарльз Сандерс Пирс, или Оса в бутылке: введение в интеллектуальную историю Америки'' (''Charles Sanders Peirce, or the Wasp in the Bottle: An Introduction to the Intellectual History of America''), Territorija buduschego Publishing House, Moscow, March 2009. * de Waal, Cornelis (2008), "Mina Samuels: ''The Queen of Cups''", ''Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society'' 44:1, winter, Inscribe, Indiana University Press. Mostly but not entirely critical review, itself informative about Juliette and Charles. * Walther, Elisabeth (1989), ''Charles Sanders Peirce: Leben und Werk'', Agis-Verlag, in German. Recommended by Houser in his Introduction

), footnote 2, in ''Writings'' v. 6. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peirce, Juliette 1934 deaths 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Charles Sanders Peirce Year of birth unknown Tuberculosis deaths in Pennsylvania