Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

I have finished the second draft of a report which I shall
send around ta the members of the Board in ~dvance of the
autm meeting, 2nd I find ny ideas are even more sharply
crystallized than I have permitted myself to say, but the
truth is that I do not wish t o put anything on paper which
will make it difficult for me or for the Board to change,
if in the course of the next months we get further light.,.
I am trying in my mind to devise ways of starting which will
comnit us as little as possible financially and othervkse so
that over a period of years ue czn regard the Institute ex-
perimentally, profiting by our experience and changing with-
out getting too deeply involved to do so,
And as he wrote, he gave evidence of a certain relaxation; he
dared so be humorous about himself, and to shou a confidence and friend-
liness rare with h im these days:
I am amused, as f write, to obsexve how different it is to
criticize wbzt ancther fellow i s doing, on the one hand, and,
on the other, to undertake to do something yourself. At
bottom, there is nothfng in this document that is not fmplied.
in what I hsve previously written and said, snd yet, when it
ems to the doing of it, a great mny questlons arise to
which as a critic one gives very little attention. 11
During this perfod he was inviting 2nd receivfng critfcism and
corrnnent from several of his academic friends on copfes of his drafts,
Some of these will be reviewed later in this chspter. The final draft
of his Confidential Mmorzndm to the Trustees was dated the 26th of
September, 1931, when he sent it for tbeir consideration in preparation
for the meeting of the 13th of October. It will appear that by that time Mr.
kidesdorf or Hr. Maass was able to assure him that some solution to
the ~roblern of location might be worked out,
The Wetnorandm consfsted of about six thousand words, dfvided
into a short pxeface and ten sections which were numbered but not titled.
The reason for that was that his treatment was not strictly topical; he