Novelist and poet, Gertrude Stein, attended Radcliffe College where she studied philosophy and psychology under William James.

Elizabeth Sprigge notes in her book Gertrude Stein: Her Life and Work, that the two became friends. In one of James’s final exams, Gertrude refused to take it, writing on her paper: ‘Dear Professor James, I am so sorry but really I do not feel a bit like an examination paper in philosophy today.’ The following day William James responded with a postcard, stating: ‘Dear Miss Stein, I understand perfectly how you feel. I often feel like that myself.’