James Bissett Pratt (June 22, 1875 – January 15, 1944) held the Mark Hopkins Chair of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Williams College.
He had an early appreciation of being read to by his mother, and particularly admired the idealism of Ralph Waldo Emerson in his youth.
[1] In 1910, Pratt traveled to Chicago, where he met his future wife, Catherine Mariotti.
In 1917, Pratt was named the Mark Hopkins Chair of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy.
He took a sabbatical in 1923, travelling in the Far East and teaching at the Chinese Christian University in Peking.