Baker Brownell  Baker Brownell (December 12, 1887 – April 5, 1965) was an American philosopher. Brownell was born in St. Charles, Illinois, the fifth of six children of Eugene A. and Esther Burr Baker Brownell. He grew up in St. Charles, where he graduated from St. Charles High School. Brownell attended five universities: the University of Washington (1906-1907); Northwestern University (1907-1909); Harvard University (1909-1913); University of Tübingen (1912-1913), and Cambridge University, England (1913). While at Harvard Brownell took classes with Josiah Royce and George Santayana, and met William James, who had already retired from Harvard. Brownell received a B.A. in philosophy from Northwestern in 1910, after completing his last year of undergraduate work at Harvard. He received an M.A. in philosophy from Harvard in 1911. In 1912-1913, as a recipient of the James Walker Traveling Fellow in Philosophy (awarded by Harvard), he attended Tübingen University in Germany and Cambridge University, where he became acquainted with Bertrand Russell. In 1916, Brownell married Helena Maxwell, whom he later divorced. His second marriage was to Adelaide Howard in 1933; they had one son, Eugene Howard Brownell, who was born on September 9, 1939. During World War I, Brownell served as an enlisted man and officer, first in the United States Army, then the U.S. Navy. (He was in the National Guard between 1916 and 1926.) He served both in the Mexican Border Campaign and World War I. He began writing poetry during this period, which was published in such magazines as "Poetry," "The Dial," and "The New Republic." Upon his return from Europe in 1913, Brownell worked as a cub reporter for the "Chicago Tribune." From 1914-1917 he lived in Emporia, Kansas, where he was an instructor in English at the Kansas State Normal College and edited a journal, "Teaching." From 1919 to 1920, Brownell was an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Idaho. Returning to Chicago in 1920, he worked until 1921 as an editorial writer for the "Chicago Daily News". In 1921 Brownell joined the faculty of Northwestern University, where he would spend the duration of his academic career. Initially, he was a lecturer in editorial writing and journalism, but soon began teaching courses in contemporary thought and philosophy.