TYPED LETTER TO J. B. POND ABOUT BELGIAN POET MAURICE MAETERLINCK'S FIRST AMERICAN TOUR SIGNED BY EDUCATOR AND PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER.

Butler is responding to a letter from J. B. Pond of the Pond Lyceum Bureau asking him to serve on the honorary committee to welcome Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck who is making his first U.S. tour under Pond's management. Butler writes: "I have yours of the 1st in regard to Mr. Maeterlinck, and look forward with pleasure to presiding at his opening lecture on the afternoon of January 8 at Carnegie Hall...." He goes on to suggest the names of "some of our representative men of letters" whom it would be well to put on the reception committee.

Nicholas Murray Butler [1862-1947] was an educator, an advisor to seven presidents, a prolific author and the recipient of numerous international decorations and honorary degrees. He was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. His good friend Theodore Roosevelt called him "Nicholas Miraculous Butler". Four years after joining the staff of Columbia's Philosophy Department in 1885 Butler gave administrative form to his philosophical theory of pedagogy by founding an institute, later affiliated with Columbia, which became known as Teachers College. He was named acting president of Columbia University in 1901 and president in 1902, a post he held until his retirement in October 1945. Columbia grew phenomenally under his presidency and became a major university.