Go ask Alice - why a bio of Alice James?

As we get further along in jean strouse's bio Alice James we see two things - how truly sick AJ was and just possibly what a potential talent she had. Strouse's works pretty hard to build a case that Alice's several breakdowns were her attempt to draw attention to herself in this highly literary and competitive family , that her illnesses were to a degree manipulative and all in her head. I'm not convinced. Even today just 35 years after strouse's wrote we have much more knowledge about (tho not a cure for) depression and it's obvious today that it's not something you fake or bring on for ulterior motives - there's a strong physiological and even chemical component but to suggest she played out or up her depression is like saying she pretended to have cancer. The continuing question in this book is why is a bio of AJ needed at all? Perhaps a James family bio but why one of her, who left no lasting literary legacy? Strouse's does show by the materials from AJ that we do have that she was quite the wit as a letter writer and quit perceptive as a diarist. Perhaps the best passage in the whole book is her hilarious account a trip to the Adirondacks w Katharine loring - her could friend and as seems obvious to a contemp reader her partner or lover. That said it also seems that the art of witty letter-writing was widespread in her class and I would think on the basis of her surviving letters alone there would be no bio. So the bio is like a test case - why did the careers of two neurotic brothers flourish but not the career of neurotic sister? In part sexism yes but there are other factors too - keep ind mind that she's not the only failure among the Jameses - the 2 younger bros fared far worse than Alice perhaps Bcz for a woman it was ok to remain in the shelter of the family but they had to go off into the world where the suffered and caused pain.