The Franklin Merrell-Wolff Fellowship

This file contains the correspondence between Franklin Wolff and Swami Rama (1925–1996), the founder of the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy. Swami Rama, who held Wolff in the highest regard, initially contacted Wolff (by telegram and telephone) to ask him to review the book, Living with the Himalayan Masters.

Robert Lincoln Coffin Rein’l received his doctorate in philosophy from Harvard in 1940; the title of his dissertation was “Intuition and Analysis in Bergson’s Theory of Knowledge.” The file here contains three letters from Mr. Rein’l to Franklin Wolff that span the years from 1972 to 1979. In the first letter here, Mr. Rein’l, who was a philosophy professor at Arizona State University, expresses some thoughts on Wolff's two-part recording, “On the Nature of Space, Dynamism, and Free Will”; attached to this letter are several syllabi for courses that Rein’l taught at ASU.

In this letter, Wolff’s step-granddaughter reports that Bruce Raden has come up with the idea of producing a mimeographed version of Wolff’s book, The Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object. This manuscript can be accessed under the Wolff Archive/Books tab here.

In this letter to his step-granddaughter, Wolff speaks on good and evil in the dualistic world. (1 page)

This file contains the Wolff’s correspondence with Bruce Raden, a student of Wolff from Phoenix, Ariz. Their exchange of letters begins in March 1970, with Mr. Raden writing to thank Wolff for his (recorded) reading of the first three cantos of Aurobindo’s epic poem, Savitri; he also inquires whether Wolff will have the time to record the remainder of the poem. Mr.

Maybelle Anshutz was a longtime student of the Assembly of Man. In this letter, she writes "Yogi" to tell him of the circumstances that will prevent her from traveling to the ranch during her vacation. (2 pages)

This is likely a note from Hattie Mackett, who was the mother of Helen Briggs (who was married to James Briggs, Wolff’s stepson). Hattie writes to thank Wolff and his wife for a gift and to let them know that she will be taking Helen to Chicago with her this year. (2 pages)

Ms. Duncan writes to tell Wolff that his book, Re-embodiment, is perfect for the Western mind, and that its emphasis on balance has had a profound on her; in fact, she has written a book based on the words in the Gita, “Equivalence is Union.” (2 pages)

This file contains an exchange of letters between Wolff and Robert Briggs (Wolff’s step-grandson). In his letter, Mr. Briggs asks the following questions concerning transcendental numbers:

Mr. Clark writes Wolff to thank him for sending copies of the Bulletin of the Assembly Man and notes that he found the publication interesting—and most especially so, the articles by Wolff. He relates that Theosophy was one of his early studies, and that he had met Annie Besant many times, asserting, “She was wonderful as a lecturer and teacher.” In closing, he states that “I was so happy to meet with you again Franklin and hope to see you again in the near future.