This file contains correspondence concerning the work of Dr. Frederick Kettner, who founded the Biosophical Institute in New York City.
Dr. Kettner and members of this organization were quite impressed with Wolff’s book, Pathways Through to Space, and particularly the poetry therein, which they felt was similar to that of Dr. Kettner. Accordingly, the institute forwarded a copy of Kettner’s book, Back to the Nameless One, which Wolff read and deposited in his library.
Wolff writes that he was quite impressed by the book, as well as the objectives of the institute. With regard to the latter, Wolff notes:
As I see it, in movements of this kind, the primary significance of the group activities is to serve as an expedient means favoring the arousal of the Awakened Consciousness as extensively as may be among men.
Wolff addresses a secondary function of such groups (the amelioration of suffering), briefly touches on the present world condition, and states his preference for a government that “would be in the larger sense aristocratic though . . . it should be combined with democratic determinants in lesser details.” He concludes by noting that he was acquainted with an author of one of the group’s pamphlets, Prof. Paul Radosavljevich of New York University, whom he knew from his days in the philosophy club at Stanford University.
Included with this correspondence are some reactions to Wolff's letter, as well as some “sketchy notes” taken during a meeting at which Dr. Kettner read and discussed different passages from Pathways Through To Space. There is also a request for an article by Wolff for a future issue of the Biosophical Review; this letter includes the handwritten note "Sent Nov 14 - 44." (13 pages)
