Alfred Hodder

A bestselling novelist in the early 20th century, Hodder was friends with many influential thinkers of the time, including Leo Stein, Josiah Flynt Willard, and Hutchins Hapgood.

[2] This love scandal involved Hodder; his common-law wife, pianist Jessie Donaldson Hodder; his boss, the powerful women's educator and Bryn Mawr Dean and President Martha Carey Thomas; and his colleague, Professor Mary (Mamie) Mackall Gwinn, the longtime live-in lover of President Thomas.

Hodder moved to Germany and studied at the universities of Freiburg and Leipzig from 1892 to 1895, publishing several translations of German philosophical essays while continuing work on his Harvard Ph.D.

He returned to the U.S. in 1895 and was hired to teach at Bryn Mawr College by M. Carey Thomas, thanks to a letter of recommendation from Professor William James.

[6] Hodder lectured in English literature at Bryn Mawr from 1895 to 1898, receiving his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard in June, 1897, after the acceptance of his dissertation—later published as a book—titled Adversaries of a Sceptic.