TYPED LETTER SIGNED by the future Episcopal Bishop of New York City WILLIAM T. MANNING agreeing to serve on the reception committee to welcome Maurice Maeterlinck to America.

The rector of Trinity Church New York from 1908 to 1921, William T. Manning (1866-1949) was the Episcopal Bishop of New York City from 1921 until 1946. Bishop Manning led a major campaign to raise funds for construction on the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In that capacity he directed a program to train and employ local men as artisans to work on the Cathedral during the Great Depression. Bishop Manning's beliefs could not reconcile themselves with those of the Nobel Prize winning philosopher Bertrand Russell and he led the effort to force the City University of New York to rescind their offer of a professorship to Russell.

James B. Pond, the American impresario and lecture agent who headed the J.B. Pond Lyceum Bureau, brought the great Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck to America for a series of lectures. The first lecture took place at Carnegie hall on January 2nd, 1920. Unfortunately Maeterlinck failed to carry out his intention to lecture in English because of his labored "phonetic" English. He declared his intention to continue his lectures in French and have the translation read by another person. As a result, the lecture tour was a failure and lawsuits ensued on both sides.