Impressions and Comments was published in three series — the first by Houghton Mifflin in 1914, the second in 1921, and the third in 1924 — and it represents Ellis’s most personal and accessible work. The books are organized as dated entries, each recording an observation, a reflection, or a meditation on whatever has caught Ellis’s attention: a painting, a scientific discovery, a walk in the countryside, a conversation, a book, a memory.
The form allowed Ellis to range freely across his interests without the constraints of sustained argument. A single entry might move from a discussion of Japanese art to a reflection on the physiology of blushing to an observation about cloud formations. The unity is not thematic but personal: what connects these entries is the quality of the intelligence observing them — curious, precise, aesthetically sensitive, and resistant to dogma.
The books offer the most intimate portrait of Ellis available: not the controversial sexologist but a gentle, cultivated, deeply solitary man whose fundamental mode of engagement with the world was contemplative rather than active. They also contain some of his finest prose — freed from the clinical requirements of scientific writing, Ellis could deploy his full literary resources.
First editions (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1914/1921/1924): Three volumes, cloth binding.
Market values:
- Complete three-volume set: $60–$150
- Individual volumes: $15–$50