ABSTRACT
Somebody once asked Edna Heidbreder how she and I had become friends. She replied with a smile, “John Stuart Mill brought us together.” In a sense that was true. I had known and admired Edna’s work since my undergraduate days at Smith College, and I had met her briefly on a couple of occasions. But the first opportunity for a serious talk came around 1963, when I was spending the year at the Institute for Cognitive Studies at Harvard. We were having dinner at the Wellesley Faculty Club; and the thing I, too, remember best about that conversation was our talking about J. S. Mill. I was immersed in the Logic at the time and had just read his autobiography, and Edna was, of course, totally familiar with both. We talked, too, about teaching and about the women’s colleges and many other things. I was impressed and stimulated, and I was charmed by her friendliness, her graciousness, and her perceptiveness.
