Chauncey Wright was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1830--the exact date is unknown--to Ansel Wright, a deputy sheriff and grocer, and Elizabeth Boleyn Wright. He was raised as a Unitarian but became an agnostic. He attended Select High School in Northampton, where, along with other students considered especially gifted, he was encouraged to do advanced work. His interest in applied science and evolutionary biology was fostered by a science teacher who could have been described as Deweyan in his approach to education if John Dewey had been born fifty years earlier. Wright was actively involved in doing scientific work such as building a nature preserve and constructing astronomical tools.

A local philanthropist, Ann Lyman, encouraged Wright's parents to send him to Harvard University. Lyman provided financial support for Wright and another Northampton student, James Bradley Thayer, who became Wright's lifelong friend and collected his letters for posthumous publication...